Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 169 mm × width 207 mm
Yanagawa Shigenobu (II)
Young Boy Reading a Scroll Held by an Old Man
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1829
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1999;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-249
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Eisen also treated a similar subject in his series Ushiwaka and the Six Classical Poets, Ushiwaka rokkasen (see Keyes).2 Based on the reference to the cyclical Year of the Ox in the word 'Ushiwaka' - 'ox' being ushi in Japanese - Keyes dates that series to 1829. It could also date from around 1825 or 1826, when series of six surimono seem to have been the vogue.
The artist
Yanagawa Shigenobu II (died after 1868), a pupil of Yanagawa Shigenobu, first used the name Shigeyama or, incorrectly often read as Juzan, and either took the name of his teacher after Shigenobu left for Osaka, or only after his death in 1833.
Entry
At night, an old man is holding one end of a scroll that a young boy is reading. A silver moon against a dark sky.
The old man is Sojobo, king of the tengu, mythical beings; those known as 'crow tengu' or karasu tengu, half-man and half-crow, were expert fighters. The boy is Ushiwakamaru, as Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-89) was called in his youth. While still an infant, he was saved by his mother Tokiwa Gozen and later banished to the Kurama Mountains by Taira no Kiyomori - the Minamoto and Taira families being at war. There, however, he was trained in the art of fencing by King Sojobo and the tengu. Returning to the world, he defeated the warrior Benkei at Gojo Bridge in Kyoto, and spent the rest of his life fighting the Taira.
Six poems by Naone, Naoo, Yoshio, Shiragi, Tsukio and Higashio.
Issued by the poets
Signature reading: Yanagawa Shigenobu, with illegible seal
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 375
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, ', Yanagawa (II) Shigenobu, Young Boy Reading a Scroll Held by an Old Man, Japan, 1829', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359195
(accessed 12 November 2024 20:52:00).