Woman Using the Toilet and Two Popular Gods

…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1990;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 51, cat. no. 111 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1991-671

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

For more on the Seven Gods of Good Fortune or Luck, the Shichifukujin, a popular group of household deities, see RP-P-1962-331.

The God of Fortune, Hotei, his bag of treasures at his side and Okame, the Goddess of Mirth and Folly, seated before him, watch as a woman uses a large bucket as a toilet, some toilet paper in her hand.

Old Craftsmanship, Ko saiku.

Although it may seem at first that the print portrays actual figures, the poems refer to handiwork, craftsmanship, and Fushimiyaki, or Fushimi ningyo, comic ceramic figurines from Fushimi, south of Kyoto. The size of the teacup behind the figures reinforces the fact that these are miniature figurines.

To the left the dating 'New Dragon Year', Tsuchinoe tatsu no haru, i.e., 1808.

Two poems by Ashinoya Umemori.

Issued by the poet
Seal reading: Shunman
Produced by the Shunman Studio

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 75

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Kubota Shunman, Woman Using the Toilet and Two Popular Gods, Japan, 1808', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422437