Object data
nishikie, with blindprinting and mica
height 191 mm × width 110 mm
Hasegawa Settan
Ceremonial New Year's Stand
Japan, Japan, 1827
Provenance
…; collection Gasai Sadachika, Japan;…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1995;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-257-6
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
This print was preserved in an album apparently compiled by Gasai Sadachika at the age of 67 in the autumn of the Year of the Dog in the Kaei period, Kanoe inu, 1850, containing works predominantly by Settan and other designers. For more prints from this album, see e.g. RP-P-1999-257-1.
The artist
Hasegawa Settan (1778–1843), a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, was probably best known for his illustrations to the Illustrated Famous Places of Edo, Edo meisho zue (1834/1836), and the Annual Events in the Eastern Capital, Toto saijiki (1832). He received the honorary rank of hokkyo in about 1824.
Entry
A ceremonial New Year's stand with large circular rice cakes resting upon ferns and orange leaves, a crayfish on top.
Large circular rice cakes, kagamimochi, literally 'mirror-cakes', made for the New Year, are usually broken as a trial of strength on the tenth day of the New Year. Their circular shape symbolises the unending cycle of time, as does the crayfish, which curls up to form a circle. Ferns, urajiro, orange leaves, daidai, and evergreens also symbolise long life. The dating 'New Year of the Boar', I no toshi no haru, i.e., 182, is written at top left.
One haiku poem by Ushinaga.
Issued by the poet
Signature reading: hokkyo Settan, with seal reading: Gangakusai
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 56
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Hasegawa Settan, Ceremonial New Year's Stand, Japan, 1827', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.363577
(accessed 25 December 2024 16:52:37).