A Warrior Holding a Pestle

Utagawa Toyohiro (mentioned on object), 1829

De krijger Asahina Saburo, met voor deze kabuki acteursrol kenmerkende schmink, houdt een knuppel in de rechter hand vast en een masker van de geluksgodin, Okame, in de linker. Zijn broek heeft een patroon van kersenbloesem drijvend in een lichtblauwe rivier. Lentebloesem in de achtergrond. Het masker en de knuppel verwijzen naar een soort tikkertje tussen hofdames aan het oude hof. Het geloof was dat degene die getikt werd, het volgende jaar zou trouwen.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-2004-518
  • Dimensionsheight 196 mm x width 521 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with metallic pigments

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after print by Utagawa Toyohiro (mentioned on object), c. 1890 - c. 1900

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Courtier on Horseback Fording a Stream

Utagawa Toyohiro (mentioned on object), 1810

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Utagawa Toyohiro

A Warrior Holding a Pestle

Japan, 1829

Inscriptions

  • date

Provenance

…; collection Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), Paris; his sale, London (Sotheby's), 8 June 2004, no. 445, to J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer;1Coll. cat. Forrer 2013, p. 108, cat. no. 193 by whom donated to the museum, 2004

Object number: RP-P-2004-518

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

Context

Other copies of this print are known in the collections of Sidney Ward and James B. Austin.

The artist

Biography

Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828) is said to have entered Utagawa Toyoharu's studio from 1782, though most of his work only seems to date from the early 19th century.

Entry

The Thirty-second Year, Sanjuninentsuzuki, from the series The Happy Annual Custom of Asahina Continued by Jihinari, Jihinari kichirei Asahina, issued by the poet Sakuragawa Jihinari, 1829.

As in RP-P-2004-517, the warrior is Asahina Saburo wearing the make-up typical of the kabuki role. His blue hakama is decorated with cherry blossoms floating on a light blue stream, his under-kimono with stylised cranes in lozenges. In this design he holds a huge wooden pestle in one hand, a mask representing Okame, the Goddess of Mirth and Folly, in the other (see RP-P-1960-282 for another example of an Okame mask, and RP-P-1991-671 for a representation of the goddess). The pestle and Okame mask allude to a court custom where the ladies would chase each other, trying to hit one of their number who would, it was believed, marry the following year (see Sotheby's London, 8/VI/2004, 437, for a Shunman surimono illustrating the end of such a party). Behind the figure of Asahina a flowering plum tree.

No poems.

Issued by the poet Sakuragawa Jihinari
Signature reading: Toyohiro ga

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 193

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa Toyohiro, A Warrior Holding a Pestle, Japan, 1829', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200470287

(accessed 8 December 2025 13:35:27).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Forrer 2013, p. 108, cat. no. 193