…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1999;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 2004, p. 14, cat. no. 332 by whom donated to the museum, 1999

Object number: RP-P-1999-237

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

This print seems to belong to an untitled series with poems on various insects within a large cartouche. Two more designs are currently known. The designs have been attributed to both Yanagawa Shigenobu²²Keyes, Roger S., The Art of Surimono. Privately Published Japanese Woodblock Prints and Books in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 2 vols. London: Sotheby’s Publications, 1985; Polster, Edythe and Alfred H. Marks, Surimono: Prints by Elbow. Washington, D.C.: Lovejoy Press, 1980. and to Utagawa Kunisada.³³Bowie, Theodore, et al.,Art of the Surimono. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1979.

For others of the series, their titles here similarly taken from the headings indicating the subjects for the poems, see:
Matsumushi suzumushi: Pilgrim fighting a woman⁴⁴Bowie, Theodore, et al.,Art of the Surimono. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1979, p. 78 (as Kunisada)
Hataori torioi: Woman holding roll of material looks outside⁵⁵Polster, Edythe and Alfred H. Marks, Surimono: Prints by Elbow. Washington, D.C.: Lovejoy Press, 1980, p. 351-1 (as Yanagawa Shigenobu); Haase 1999, 32; MFA 11.26490 (artist unknown).

A high-ranking courtesan stops to speak to a young apprentice, kamuro, playing with a ball in a long corridor in a brothel.

The Noisy Cricket and the Butterfly, Katsuwamushi kocho, from an untitled series alluding to Various Insects.

The title of the print, taken here from the heading indicating the subjects for the poems, seems to refer to the girl ‘making noise’ with her ball on the wooden floor, the butterfly probably referring to the traditional large knots tied in courtesans’ sashes.

Two poems by Rikkaen Fusanaga [also Rokajin, a judge of the Sugawararen],⁶⁶Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 199. and Shakuyakutei [Nagane, 1767-1845, earlier Asagi no Uranari. As Sugawara no Nagane, he established his own poetry club, the Sugawararen, publishing from 1826].⁷⁷Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 160.

Each of the poems is preceded by a heading, referring to the two figures in the print. The first concerns the playing apprentice:
She looks so beautiful, the playing girl in her kimono woven with golden threads.

The second, alluding to the courtesan, reads:
Usually they are called ‘butterflies’ - soon, however, this bud of cherry blossom one sees in one’s dreams will turn into a cloud.

Issued by the Sugawararen
Unsigned

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 486

M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, A Courtesan Watches a Kamuro Playing with a Ball, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200413467