A Family of Cranes

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1808

Een kraanvogel met jongen, onder een pijnboom op het strand. Op de voorgrond twee langharige schildpadden en voor de zon een vliegende kraanvogel. Kraanvogels en langharige schildpadden zijn Japanse geluks- en Nieuwjaarssymbolen. Een langharige schildpad staat bijvoorbeeld voor een lang leven, omdat hij zijn zeewierstaart pas zou krijgen nadat hij de leeftijd van 10.000 jaar bereikt. Eén gedicht.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-1999-257-22
  • Dimensionsheight 184 mm x width 256 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with blindprinting

Discover more

more by Hasegawa Settan

Flowers

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1831

Flowers

The Rising Sun

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1824

The Rising Sun

A Basket of Young Shoots

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1831

A Basket of Young Shoots

A Toy Monkey

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1836

A Toy Monkey

A Toy Cock

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), 1825

A Toy Cock

Envelop met twee manzai-dansers

Hasegawa Settan (mentioned on object), c. 1800 - c. 1850

Envelop met twee manzai-dansers

Hasegawa Settan

A Family of Cranes

Japan, 1808

Provenance

…; collection Gasai Sadachika, Japan;…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1995;1Coll. cat. Goslings 2004, p. 46, cat. no. 338v by whom donated to the museum, 1999

Object number: RP-P-1999-257-22

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

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

Biography

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 family of cranes under a pine tree, a large crane flying in front of a red sun, two long-tailed turtles, minogame, on the beach in the foreground.

Cranes and long-tailed turtles are popular auspicious symbols for the New Year. Turtles are believed to grow a tail of seaweed after reaching the age of 10,000 years.

The print is designed to resemble a page of a book with the ‘pillar’, hashira, separating the image and text.

To the left a haiku poem preceded by an introductory text and the note ‘New Year of the Dragon’, Tsuchinoe tatsu no eitan, i.e., 1808.

One anonymous poem, possibly by the designer.

Issued by the poet and the designer(?)
Signature reading: Hasegawa Settan

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 50

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Hasegawa Settan, A Family of Cranes, Japan, 1808', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200416154

(accessed 30 November 2025 02:06:57).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 2004, p. 46, cat. no. 338v