Woman Seated by a Stag

Katsukawa Shuntei (mentioned on object), c. 1820

Een vrouw rust uit, zittend op een bundel hout, onder een pruimenboom, nabij een stroompje. Ze rookt een pijp en kijkt naar een voorbij lopend hert. Naast haar liggen meer bundels hout, wat in combinatie met haar kleding doet vermoeden dat ze uit Ohara komt. Vrouwen uit Ohara, nabij Kioto, verdienden de kost met het verzamelen van aanmaakhout. Het hert maakt haar echer een representatie van de geluksgod Jurôjin. Met drie gedichten.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-1991-546
  • Dimensionsheight 197 mm x width 176 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with metallic pigments

Katsukawa Shuntei

Woman Seated by a Stag

Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, c. 1820

Inscriptions

  • collector's mark, verso, stamped

Provenance

…; collection C.J.F.J. Maassen (1895-?), Amsterdam;…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1984;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 55, cat. no. 120 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-546

Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse


The artist

Biography

Katsukawa Shuntei (1770–1820), a follower of Katsukawa Shunei, worked with a wide range of subjects.


Entry

A Woman pauses under a plum tree to smoke a pipe as a stag passes by in a landscape with a stream. Next to her a few bundles of wood she has gathered.

Print from the series The Seven Gods of Good Fortune for the Hanagasaren, Hanagasaren shichifukujin.

Although in all respects a typical Oharame - women from Ohara, north of Kyoto, who made a living by gathering firewood - the stag identifies her as a representation of the God Jurojin, one the Seven Gods of Fortune whose emblems are a stag and a staff with a scroll tied to it. The woman’s scarf has a drum, the emblem of the poetry club, in reserve.

Three poems by Chifune Atsumaru [probably not identical to Kikin no Atsumaru (d. 1829), who used many different names but was mostly associated with the Gogawa],2Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 6. Horeisha Sakunari and Yamato Watamori [1795-1849, a member of the Taikogawa and later of the Gogawa].3Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 255.

None of the poems allude to Jurojin, focusing instead on the Oharame and the usual imagery.

Issued by the Hanagasaren, a subdivision of the Taikogawa
Signature reading: Shokyuko Shuntei ga


Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 496


Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsukawa Shuntei, Woman Seated by a Stag, Japan, c. 1820', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200475220

(accessed 11 December 2025 20:32:14).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 55, cat. no. 120
  • 2Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 6.
  • 3Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 255