…; collection John Stewart Happer (1863-1936), Japan and London; his sale, London (Sotheby’s, Wilkinson & Hodge), April and June 1909;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 10, cat. no. 3; Meech 2003, p. 41 …; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1984;²²Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 10, cat. no. 3 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-547

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

A woman carrying a young boy on her back watches her other son feeding a cock and a hen. A plum tree behind them.

Three poems by Hamabe Akahito [probably identical to Yube no Akahito, from Besshomura in Shinano Province],³³Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 3. Hamabe Matsushige and Kyokado [Yomo no Utagaki Magao, 1753-1829, Shikatsube Magao, pupil of Yomo Akara. Used the name ‘Yomo’ from 1796, when he became a judge of the Yomogawa. Alternative name Kyokado].⁴⁴[Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 214.

The first poem, by Akahito, reads:
Another year has passed and it is now going to change into the New Cock Year.

The other poems are in a similar vein:
The Year of the Cock comes again, reminding us that another year has flown - certainly a suitable time for the bird of Spring spirit.

And:
Travelling to the shrine along auspicious paths, the mother and her children find plenty of good fortune to start the New Cock Year.

Issued by followers of the poet Yomo Magao
Signature reading: Keisai

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 505

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Keisai Eisen, Woman and Children Feeding Chicken, Japan, 1825', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200416010