Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 203 mm × width 184 mm
Yashima Gakutei (attributed to)
Two Dancers
Japan, Japan, c. 1827 - c. 1828
Inscriptions
- collector's mark, verso, stamped
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1997;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-241
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Hexaptychs in this format, arranged as two triptychs top and bottom, are rare in Japanese prints. The only other example that comes to mind is a splendid design by Utamaro of a scene above and below a bridge issued by Omiya Gonkuro around the mid-1790s.2
For other sheets of this hexaptych, see:
Top right (unsigned)3,4,5, MMA JP3606 and JP3607 (unsigned)
Top centre6 (signed Gakutei),7 (unsigned)
Top left: MMA JP3606 and JP3607 (unsigned)
Button right (unsigned)8
Bottom centre9 (signed Gakutei),10 (unsigned)
Bottom left11 (signed Gakutei),12 (unsigned), MMA JP1250 (unsigned).
The artist
Yashima Gakutei (1786?-1868), a pupil of Totoya Hokkei, was also strongly influenced by Katsushika Hokusai. He used the art-names Harunobu, Sadaoka and Yashima. In addition to his designs for surimono and kyoka collections - he was probably the most prolific designer in this genre – he was also a poet and writer as well as a great Sinologist.
Entry
Two men wearing straw hats and boldly patterned coats dancing on a background of vertical golden bands.
Print from the hexaptych A Series of Six Prints for the Katsushika Poetry Club, Katsushika Rokubantsuzuki.
This is the top left sheet of a hexaptych composition, showing men performing the Sparrow dance, Suzume odori. The gold bands and the broad black border supposedly suggest a birdcage: the men are actually caught in a cage. The emblem of the Katsushika poetry club appears on the dancers' coats.
Apparently, there were at least two editions of this design, one with the signature Gakutei on some of the sheets, while the signature is sometimes lacking on the other edition. A signature on the bottom left sheet would normally have sufficed on a design like this.
Two poems by Bunmeisha —maru and Ban—an Toso. Both poems refer to the 'Sparrow dance in Spring'.
This hexaptych composition was issued for the Katsushikaren, a club of poets who usually commissioned designs for their surimono series from Gakutei. However, the poet Amanoya Wakashiba, primarily associated with the Hisakatayaren, also appears to be included among the commissioning poets, as is often the case with editions by the Katsushikaren.
Issued by the Katsushikaren
Unsigned (this sheet)
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 455
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'attributed to Yashima Gakutei, Two Dancers, Japan, c. 1827 - c. 1828', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359192
(accessed 20 September 2024 09:30:56).