Teahouse Waitress Seated on a Bench

Sunayama Gosei (mentioned on object), c. 1815 - c. 1820

Een serveerster zit op een bankje voor een theehuis waarop de naam Kisen staat, de naam van een beroemde dichter. Met één gedicht. De prent is uitgegeven door het Nogawa dichtersgezelschap, waarvan het embleem terugkomt op de kimono van de afgebeelde vrouw.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-1991-674
  • Dimensionsheight 179 mm x width 117 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with metallic pigments

Sunayama Gosei

Teahouse Waitress Seated on a Bench

Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1990;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 16, cat. no. 16 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-674

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

The artist

Biography

Sunayama Gosei (d. 1835) was probably a pupil of Hokusai. He also used the art-name Hotei, which has led some to consider him identical to Hotei Hokuga. An entry in a recently discovered diary of a contemporary bookshop appears to confirm that Hokuga changed his name to Gosei in IX/1819. If this is correct, then perhaps we should distinguish between Hokuga I (Gosei from 1819, d. 1835), Hokuga II (d. 1856) and Hokuga III.

Entry

A teahouse waitress resting on a bench outside, holding her serving tray.

The teahouse signboard reads Kisen, the name of the poet who is the subject of this design. The repeated emblem of the Nogawa on the woman's kimono.

The Priest-Poet Kisen hoshi, Kisen, from the series The Six Classical Poets, Rokkasen no uchi.

One poem by —do Kareru.
The poem refers to Uji, near Kyoto, known for its tea, considered the best in Japan.

The Six Classical Poets, Rokkasen, is a selection of the greatest poets first singled out in the preface to the anthology of the Poets from Former Times and Today, Kokinwakashu (20 vols., 905). The group is comprised of the Heian-period (794-1185) poets (dates mostly unknown) Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), Sojo Henjo, Kisen hoshi, Otomo no Kuronushi, Bunya no Yasuhide and Ono no Komachi. As far as we can ascertain from this design, they are represented by fashionable women in this series.

Issued by the Nogawa
Signature reading: Gosei ga

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 180

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Sunayama Gosei, Teahouse Waitress Seated on a Bench, Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467498

(accessed 13 December 2025 01:17:08).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 16, cat. no. 16