Geisha Playing the Shamisen

…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1999;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 2004, p. 12, cat. no. 329 by whom donated to the museum, 1999

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1999-246

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

This series is typical of those for which the total number of designs is difficult to ascertain. Six designs have been identified thus far, but their titles provide no further clues. As for the Sugawararen, this group seems to have been established only later, see e.g. RP-P-1958-515. As for the other known prints in this series, only Kurobo and Yamabito could be positively identified as a kind of incense.

For other designs of the series, see:
Natsugoromo: Woman drying her ears - NME, Leiden, 1353- 1916²²Boisgirard, Claude and Axel de Heeckeren, _Très importante collection de 260 surimono /.../_Paris, Drouot, 29-30 juin 1978. Paris: 1978, p. 494.,³³Carpenter, John T. (ed.), Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints: With a Catalogue of the Marino Lusy Collection. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2008, p. 241., MFA 11.20728
Sakakiba: Boy selling paper charms, ofuda, addressing a woman with a baby⁴⁴Polster, Edythe and Alfred H. Marks, Surimono: Prints by Elbow. Washington, D.C.: Lovejoy Press, 1980, p. 353-3., MFA 11.20726
Gyosen: Geisha and attendant by an embankment,⁵⁵Japanische Surimono, Sale Catalogue, 10 September-3 October 1987, Vienna: Galerie Zacke, 1987, p. 57., MFA 20089
Yamabito: Woman standing by a toilet case⁶⁶Hillier, Jack R., Japanese Prints and Drawings from the Vever Collection. London: Philip Wilson for Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 1976, p. 798,⁷⁷Paul F. Walter Collection of Surimono. Privately Commissioned Japanese Prints. New York: Christie's, 23 October 1992, p. 75.,⁸⁸Mirviss, Joan B. and John T. Carpenter, Jewels of Japanese Printmaking: Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804-1830 (Amerika no 3 josei ga atsumeta Bunka, Bunsei no shugyoku no surimono). Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art & Nihon Keizai Shinbun, 2000, p. 31.,⁹⁹Carpenter, John T. (ed.), Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints: With a Catalogue of the Marino Lusy Collection. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2008, p. 243., MFA 11.20723
Kiku no tsuyu: Man pouring sake from a large bucket, a woman seated by a large tray¹⁰¹⁰Carpenter, John T. (ed.), Reading Surimono: The Interplay of Text and Image in Japanese Prints: With a Catalogue of the Marino Lusy Collection. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2008, p. 244., MFA, 11.20733

Yanagawa Shigenobu II first used the signature Shigeyama also, incorrectly, read as Juzan. After his teacher left for Osaka in late 1821, he started using the signature Yanagawa Shigenobu II, nisei Yanagawa Shigenobu, as here. According to Keyes, however, he only used it after his teacher's death in 1833.¹¹¹¹Keyes, Roger S., The Art of Surimono. Privately Published Japanese Woodblock Prints and Books in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 2 vols. London: Sotheby’s Publications, 1985, p. 318.

A geisha playing the shamisen while another sits in the open window, a plum tree in the garden. Various dishes on a serving tray at left.

Black Incense, Kurobo, from the series A Comparison of Fragrances, Takimono aware.

The incense in the print-title, Black Incense, Kurobo, is associated with Winter and is mentioned in the Tale of Genji, Genji monogatari (early 11th century), written by the Heian-period (794-1185) court lady Murasaki Shikibu (cf. RP-P-2006-108). In the print, however, the allusions are primarily to 'black', in both the kimono worn by the geisha and in the poem by Shakuyakutei.

Three poems by Chokintei Aoki, Shinryutei Harukaze and Shakuyakutei [Nagane, 1767-1845, earlier Asagi no Uranari. As Sugawara no Nagane, he established his own poetry club, the Sugawararen, publishing from 1826].¹²¹²Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 160.

All the poems are conventional New Year's poems, the one by Shakuyakutei reading:
There's no way to hide the scent of plums on my black sleeves, unless I hang it in my scented clothing box in the dark of Spring evening.

Issued by the Sugawararen(?)
Signature reading: the second, nisei Yanagawa Shigenobu, with seal: Yanagawa

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 373

M. Forrer, 2013, ', Yanagawa (II) Shigenobu, Geisha Playing the Shamisen, Japan, c. 1822', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359175