Utagawa Kunisada (I)

Man with a Wrapped Sunshade over His Shoulder

Japan, Japan, 1836

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer Hasegawa, Japan, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1994;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 32, cat. no. 55 by whom donated to the museum, 1995

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1995-281

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

Context

This is the right-hand sheet of a triptych composition with Ichikawa Danjuro VII in the role of Umeomaru (centre sheet) and Onoe Kikugoro III as Sakuraomaru (left sheet).2Polster, Edythe and Alfred H. Marks, Surimono: Prints by Elbow. Washington, D.C.: Lovejoy Press, 1980, p. 307-1
Matsumoto Koshiro V (1764-1838) acted under this name from 1801 to his death in V/1838.

The artist

Biography

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) was a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, who dominated the field of kabuki prints until his death. Kunisada's prints of beautiful women, bijinga, were also very successful. Only well after he had established himself as a designer of actor prints did he enter the world of surimono design, becoming the most prolific designer of surimono in the Utagawa tradition. He also used the art-names Ichiyusai, Gototei and Kochoro.

Entry

A man wearing a court-cap, eboshi, and two swords, shouldering a parasol in a cloth wrapper.

The man is the kabuki actor Matsumoto Koshiro V in the role of Matsuomaru in the so-called ‘Carriage Stopping-scene’, Kurumabiki, in the play Sugawara denju tenarai kagami. Koshiro performed this role in Nakamura Theatre in Edo in V/1823 - which would, however, be too early for the type of signature used here. This print must therefore have been issued to commemorate his ‘Once a lifetime’, Isse ichidai, performance of the role at the Nakamura Theatre in XI/1835.3Kabuki nenpyo (Chronology of Kabuki), 8 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1973 (1956), vol. 6, p. 315f.

The ground features the repeated emblem of the Gogawa poetry club. In another, possibly earlier version of the print (see Forrer;4Forrer, Matthi, Surimono/egoyomi. Dusseldorf: Ukiyo-e Galerie Herbert Egenolf, 1978, p. 50. Markus5Markus, Helena, Surimono. Stampe augurali nel Giappone del '700 e '800 /.../ Torino. Florence: Luca Giusti, 1983, p. 49.), the poetry-block is different, with poems by the latter being identical to his poem on this print.

Two poems by Shomien Fukumoku(?) and Rokudaen [Futaba, earlier Yoshinoya Futaba or Jushoken Futaba, a judge of the Gogawa, later also the owner of a brothel in the New Yoshiwara, ed. 1858].6Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 191.

Issued by the poets
Signature reading: Kochoro Kunisada ga, with Toshidama rings

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 568

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, Man with a Wrapped Sunshade over His Shoulder, Japan, 1836', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318663

(accessed 10 June 2025 04:22:02).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 32, cat. no. 55
  • 2Polster, Edythe and Alfred H. Marks, Surimono: Prints by Elbow. Washington, D.C.: Lovejoy Press, 1980, p. 307-1
  • 3Kabuki nenpyo (Chronology of Kabuki), 8 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1973 (1956), vol. 6, p. 315f.
  • 4Forrer, Matthi, Surimono/egoyomi. Dusseldorf: Ukiyo-e Galerie Herbert Egenolf, 1978, p. 50.
  • 5Markus, Helena, Surimono. Stampe augurali nel Giappone del '700 e '800 /.../ Torino. Florence: Luca Giusti, 1983, p. 49.
  • 6Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 191.