Kubota Shunman

Woman Holding a Tray with Clothing

Japan, Japan, 1807

Provenance

…; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1989;1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 52, cat. no. 115 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1991-667

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

Context

The series probably uses the teaching of good manners to portray a selection of upper-class ladies.

Other known designs are all signed Shosado. However, there is no signature on this design. Perhaps the signature to the poem sufficed, or it could have been lost from the lower right during restoration.

For other designs from the series, see:
Serving a New Year's meal;2Mirviss, Joan B. and John T. Carpenter, The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. New York: Weatherhill; Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix Art Museum, 1995, 242.
Presenting a set of bow and arrows;3Ibid., 243.
How to examine a sword;4Ibid., p. 260, no. 244.
Holding a long ladle^;[Ibid., 245.]
Greeting a patron in Nakanocho.5Ibid., 246.

The artist

Biography

Kubota Shunman (1757-1820), popularly called Kubo Shunman, was a pupil of Kitao Shigemasa who was also strongly influenced by Torii Kiyonaga and Katsukawa Shuncho. He created an attractive blend of the various ideals of feminine beauty prevalent in his time. He also used the art name Shosado. In addition to designing prints and making paintings, he was a poet and a writer and ran a studio that produced surimono. It was probably in this capacity that he introduced some of the innovations of the mid-Bunka period (1809-13), exploring the concept of large series of shikishiban surimono.

Entry

A court lady holds a wooden stand with an over-kimono draped over it.

The Way of Presenting an Over-Kimono: Accomplished as Described in the ??(?), Kaminishimo no idashiyo, - Toshidoshi - shirushite wo nasu, from the series The Way of Training According to the Colours of Spring, Shunshoku shitsukekata.

One poem by Shosado [Kubota Shunman, 1757-1820, a pupil of Tsumuri no Hikaru and a member of the Hakurakugawa].6Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 95.

Issued by the Hakurakugawa Poetry Club(?)
Unsigned, or the signature was lost during restoration

Literature

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 73

Citation

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Kubota Shunman, Woman Holding a Tray with Clothing, Japan, 1807', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422435

(accessed 16 May 2025 23:20:44).

Footnotes

  • 1Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 52, cat. no. 115
  • 2Mirviss, Joan B. and John T. Carpenter, The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. New York: Weatherhill; Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix Art Museum, 1995, 242.
  • 3Ibid., 243.
  • 4Ibid., p. 260, no. 244.
  • 5Ibid., 246.
  • 6Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 95.