A Medicine Case Upon a Fan

Katsushika Hokusai (mentioned on object), 1798

Een pillendoosje (inrô) van zwart lak en een versiering van kersenbloesem, ligt op een gedeeltelijk opengevouwen waaier. Op de platte gordelknoop (netsuke) van het pillendoosje zijn de lange maanden voor het jaar 1798 weergegeven. Met twee gedichten.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono, egoyomi (kalenderblad)
  • Object numberRP-P-1991-627
  • Dimensionsheight 135 mm x width 182 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with blindprinting and mica

Katsushika Hokusai

A Medicine Case Upon a Fan

Japan, Japan, 1798

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1987;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 25, cat. no. 40 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-627

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


The artist

Biography

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) first studied with Katsukawa Shunsho but later developed his own style. He was occasionally influenced by various other traditions, and designed thousands of calendar prints and surimono from 1787 until about 1810. His surimono production diminished in the 1810s but he resumed his former output between 1321 and 1825. He is best known for his landscape prints of the 1830s.


Entry

A black-lacquered three-tiered medicine case, inro, decorated with cherry blossom in silver, places on a partly opened fan. The fan with a decoration of young pines. Attached to the inro are a coral bead, ojime, and a flat netsuke, probably a disc of potwhale ivory.

The numerals for the long months of 1798, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, and 12, are indicated on the surface of the netsuke. The paper of the fan is blindprinted with a fine labyrinthine pattern, possibly imitating silk.

Two poems by Yorozu Rakutasu(?) and Mankitei [I, Hana no] Edosumi [a judge of the Yomogawa, d. 1805].2Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 29.

Both poems refer to the inro in the design.

Issued by a follower of the poet Mankitei Edosumi
Signature reading: Sori ga


Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 89


Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsushika Hokusai, A Medicine Case Upon a Fan, Japan, 1798', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467462

(accessed 10 December 2025 10:44:07).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 25, cat. no. 40
  • 2Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 29.