…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1991;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 47, cat. no. 98 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-679

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

In commercial prints, a series-title such as this would normally be identified with Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). The theme of warriors is somewhat uncommon for a surimono series. On the other hand, it is also typical of Shinsai, who was one of the first to fully explore the possibilities of surimono issued in series from the early 1800s. Based on the title alone, it is impossible to estimate how many designs this series would originally have comprised. No other designs have been identified in the literature. The title cartouche features the emblems of both the Kasumiren and the Taikogawa poetry clubs.

An archer holding arrows in his right hand and a bow in his left stands behind a seated lady holding a fan decorated with a red sun. A bobbin on the ground in front of her.

From A Series of Bravery and Valiance, Eiyuzoroi.

The man in the design is the 12th-century warrior Munetaka, better known as Nasu no Yoichi, a great Minamoto archer who managed to hit a fan decorated with a sun held by the Lady Tamamushi on one of the Taira ships during the Battle of Yashima in 1185.

Two poems by Rankyusha Kariyasu, from Shinobu in O[shu], i.e., Mutsu Province [earlier Ryuentei, who was made a judge of the Senshuan poetry club in the early 1830s],²²Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 40. and Dondontei Wataru from Toto [studied with Sandara hoshi, later a leader of the Taikogawa, d. 1822].³³Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 256.

The poem by Kariyasu seems to have directly inspired the design, referring to the 'Spring breeze driving away the mist as if stretching a bow at Yashima', as well as mentioning 'kites shaped as fans', which may account for the bobbin, around which a kite's string is wound.

Issued by the Taikogawa and the Kasumiren
Signature reading: Shinsai

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 149

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Ryûryûkyo Shinsai, An Archer and a Seated Lady, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467482