Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting (on the sleeves of the under kimono)
height 202 mm × width 177 mm
Kuniyasu Utagawa
Man by Standing Screen
Japan, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1996;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-247
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832), a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, designed prints of actors, beautiful women and landscapes as well as surimono and book illustrations. He also used the art name Ipposai.
Entry
A man in a striped kimono, a red scarf around his neck, reaching for his sword. A low standing screen, tsuitate, with a decoration of chrysanthemums at left.
The man is the kabuki actor Seki Sanjuro II in an unidentified role. The decoration on the screen provides the only clue to a date of this performance, most likely suggesting the Ninth Month. Seki Sanjuro II (1786-1839) acted under this name from XI/1807 until his death in IX/1839.
This might be the right-hand sheet of a diptych.
One poem by Karintei Kotonoha Nagaki [earlier Tsushoken Kotonoha, but apparently not identical to any of the three Nagakis listed in Kano].2
The poem alludes to ‘the mist around the willows in Spring’, but also speaks of a ‘shark-skin scabbard’ - whereas the scabbard worn by the actor looks more like it has mother-of-pearl inlays.
Issued by the poet
Signature reading: Kuniyasu hitsu, with Toshidama ring
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 528
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Kuniyasu Utagawa, Man by Standing Screen, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359180
(accessed 23 November 2024 04:30:12).