…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1999;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 2004, p. 7, cat. no. 315 by whom donated to the museum, 1999

Object number: RP-P-1999-244

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

On a pale yellow ground with large characters in reserve, a still life of a bow, an arrow in the target, an archer’s hat, sleeve and handkerchief.

The characters in reserve on the ground read Hana, after the first poet, Shofuen Hananushi.

Print from the series The Three Lights, Sanko

Four poems by Shofuen Hananushi [also Senshu Hananushi, early name Monaka Tsukimaru, a member of the Shuchodo poetry club],²²Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 173. Manzaitei Gyokunari, Chikushien Itoyori [a samurai in the service of the lord of Odawara],³³Ibid., p. 18. 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].⁴⁴Ibid., p. 214.

The poem by Hananushi reads:
The moon is a bow, its arrows pierce the stars, its target - thus are people touched by the first song of the warbler.

The other poems make similar references to the elements in the design.

No other designs in this series could be identified. As all the poems refer to stars, it is possible that the series takes the sun, the moon and the stars as ‘The Three Lights’.

Issued by the Yomogawa
Signature reading: Keisai

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 512

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Keisai Eisen, Archery Equipment, Japan, c. 1830 - c. 1835', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200413477