…; the dealer Japanese Gallery, Londen (collector`s mark);...; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 57, cat. no. 125 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-621

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

Nine designs in this series are presently known, one of them in an album of surimono made in 1804, now in the British Museum, London. It has not been possible, however, to identify all of them by their title.

For others of the series, see:

No. 3: Kekkon²²Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum. Tokyo kokuritsu hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku. Ukiyoe hangahen, 3 vols. Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu, 1974, 3721.

No. ?: Dogu³³Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum. Tokyo kokuritsu hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku. Ukiyoe hangahen, 3 vols. Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu, 1974, 3723.

No. 7: Kashiire⁴⁴Fujisawa Morihiko korekushon surimono o chuushin to shite (The Fujisawa Morihiko Collection: with a Stress on Surimono) Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1998, p. 146.

No. 10: Ironaoshi⁵⁵Boisgirard, Claude and Axel de Heeckeren, Très importante collection de 750 surimono, de calendriers, de nagaye, et d’oban. Paris, Drouot, 12-15 décembre 1977. Paris: 1977, p. 324.

An interior scene with a woman breastfeeding a baby, a maidservant sharpening a razor on a whetstone at left. To the right, a young boy holding a black-lacquered ewer stands by a water basin.

Number Eleven- The First Childbirth, Juichi - Hatsuzan, from the series The Rats' Wedding - A Series of Twelve Prints, Nezumi no yomeiri - Junimaitsuzuki.

Three poems by Senhoshu Ashiyuki(?), Wakaiki Hayanaga and Shinratei Manzo [I, 1754-1809, first a pupil of Hiraga Gennai, taking the name Furai Sanjin II, and later, from the 1780s, taking the names Morishima Churyo and Manzotei].⁶⁶Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 216.

The theme of this series, 'The Rats' Wedding', is of unknown origin, possibly even dating back to the Muromachi period (1392-1573). Produced in book format, it was a popular story for children, the first examples dating from around the late 17th- and early 18th centuries. As a series of single prints, it was probably first treated by Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814).

Issued by the Manjiren
Signature reading: Hishikawa Sori ga

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 119

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Hishikawa Sôri, Woman Feeding a Baby, Japan, 1804', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467468