…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 58, cat. no. 127 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-590

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

For a somewhat similar design of a courtier with two attendants by a stream, but in a much larger format and featuring a more balanced composition, see Mirviss.²²Mirviss, Joan B. Surimono. New York: Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd. Japanese Fine Art, 1985, p. 23.

A courtier on horseback fording a stream, his horse led by a servant. They are followed by a page-boy carrying the man's sword. On the bank flowering lespedeza.

The flowering lespedeza, hagi, identifies the stream as the Ide Crystal River, Ide no Tamagawa, one of a group of six streams known as the Six Crystal Rivers, Mutamagawa. They are all associated with poems by Shunzei. The man on horseback can thus be identified as the courtier and famous poet Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), to whom the Tales of Ise, Ise monogatari, was formerly attributed.

The format suggests that this print dates from the late 1790s. Although apparently complete at right and left, the print seems to have been trimmed slightly at the bottom and perhaps even considerably at the top. Additionally, based on the printing technique and especially the marked use of sharp blindprinting, it could be concluded that this is a work from the Bunka period (1804-18).

No poems.

Issued anonymously(?)
Signature reading: Toyohiro ga

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 191

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa Toyohiro, Courtier on Horseback Fording a Stream, Japan, 1810', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467505