The Hobby-horse Dance

Maki Bokusen (mentioned on object), 1810

Een jonge page voert de lente-paardendans uit met in zijn rechter hand een stokpaard. Surimono gemaakt voor het nieuwe jaar van het paard, 1810. Met één gedicht.

  • Artwork typeprint, surimono
  • Object numberRP-P-1991-454
  • Dimensionsheight 190 mm x width 169 mm
  • Physical characteristicsnishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting

Maki Bokusen

The Hobby-horse Dance

Japan, Japan, 1810

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1982;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 9, cat. no. 2 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-454

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

Context

Bokusen was an amateur designer from Nagoya in Owari Province, who started taking lessons from Hokusai in 1812 when the latter stayed at his house, a meeting-place for the cultural elite in this provincial capital. Most likely, the print was made and printed in Edo rather than in Nagoya, the hometown of both poet and designer, where there was hardly any tradition of making single prints such as this.

Bokusen seems to have had an earlier connection with Kitagawa Utamaro, having been given the name Utamasa. For a surimono signed Utamasa for the previous Year of the Horse 1798, with a rather simple design of a hobby-horse and images of two of the Seven Gods of Fortune, see Asano.2Asano, Shugo, Suijintachi no okurimono. Edo no surimono (Cultivated Gifts: Surimono of the Edo Period). Chiba: Chibashi Bijutsukan, 1997, p. 180. For yet another design by Utamasa, see Ward.3Ward, Sidney C., One Hundred Surimono in the Collection of Sidney C. Ward. Privately published, 1976, p. 71.

The artist

Biography

Maki Bokusen (1775-1824) was initially a pupil of Kitagawa Utamaro, taking the names Gessai Gabimaru and Utamasa. From 1812, he became a follower of Katsushika Hokusai, changing his name Bokusen into Hokusen. He also used the art-names Gekkotei, Hyakusai and Hokutei.

Entry

A page-boy performing the Spring Pony Dance, harugoma, raising the head of a toy pony with his right arm. He is dressed in formal court clothing, consisting of a long-sleeved kimono over court-trousers, hakama.

Obviously, the reference is to the New Year of the Horse, in this case 1810, as the Nagoya designer Maki Bokusen changed his name and the characters for it into Hokusen after 1812, when he became a follower of Hokusai.

One poem by Rokusenen Utamori, from Biyo, i.e., Owari Province. The poem compares the bend in the horse's neck to the moon:

Even after the First Lucky Dream of the year,
daybreak is veiled in mist and the pony-like moon is hazy.

It was considered auspicious to dream of Mount Fuji, a falcon and eggplants on New Year's Eve, the so-called First Lucky Dream, hatsuyume.

Issued by the poet
Signature reading: Hyakusai Bokusen ga

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 173

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Maki Bokusen, The Hobby-horse Dance, Japan, 1810', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200415819

(accessed 8 December 2025 22:38:59).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 9, cat. no. 2
  • 2Asano, Shugo, Suijintachi no okurimono. Edo no surimono (Cultivated Gifts: Surimono of the Edo Period). Chiba: Chibashi Bijutsukan, 1997, p. 180.
  • 3Ward, Sidney C., One Hundred Surimono in the Collection of Sidney C. Ward. Privately published, 1976, p. 71.