Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting (on the lower part of the woman's kimono)
height 139 mm × width 183 mm
Katsushika Hokutai
Man with Umbrella by a Water Barrel
Japan, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805
Inscriptions
-
lower left, in red ink, oblong seal of the printer Keiroku
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1992;
1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-280
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
The series-title indicates that this is one of a series of seven, but no other designs have been identified.
The artist
Katsushika Hokutai was a follower of Katsushika Hokusai, and used the names Katsushika, Eisai, Shinshinshi and Raito.
Entry
A man with a petulant expression, a towel around his head and holding an umbrella, stands by a large water barrel with a pile of smaller buckets on a triangular shelf next to it. Behind him a courtesan's apprentice, shinzo.
The man is the popular hero Sukeroku, a character in a kabuki play popularised by the Ichikawa family of actors, who pretends to be infatuated with the courtesan Agemaki while avenging the murder of his father. The text on one of the sides of the shelf reads 'Edo Street, First Block', Edocho it[chome], a street in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter.
The Popular Hero Sukeroku, Sukeroku, from A Series of Seven Prints, Shichiban no uchi.
One poem by Sansuisha Satochika.
The poem is not connected to the subject of the print, speaking of -
The peace and quiet of a trip in a covered boat with you, my flower, along the coast of Awa and Kazusa - Awa and Kazusa are the two provinces opposite Edo Bay.
Issued by an unidentified poetry club
Signature reading: Eisai Hokutai ga
Printer: Keiroku
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 133
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsushika Hokutai, Man with Umbrella by a Water Barrel, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318646
(accessed 20 September 2024 15:23:24).