…; collection Tony Straus Negbaur (?-1942), Berlin (L. 2459a);…; 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. 22, cat. no. 29 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

Object number: RP-P-1991-709

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

Apparently, there was a vogue for designs after No plays in the early 1820s. In addition to this series of ten designs by Hokuba, Hokkei also designed a series on No plays, the Series of Fifteen No, No jugoban, for the Manjiren (see, e.g., Keyes²²Keyes, Roger S., Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints in the Spencer Museum of Art. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1984, pp. 71-73. and Kruml³³Kruml, Richard. Surimono Prints, Catalogue 15. London, 1975, pp. 26-39.), as did Kosetsu in 1823 for the Yomogawa (see Keyes).⁴⁴Keyes, 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, pp. 219-33.However, it is impossible to say on what basis the designs were selected for all of these series. Hokkei, for example, also uses two of the subjects in Hokuba's series, but at least ten of those treated by Kosetsu do not occur in Hokkei's selection.

For others of the series, see:
Adachigahara - NME, Leiden, 1353-665⁵⁵Kyrova, Magda, et al., The Ear Catches the Eye. Music in Japanese Prints. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000, p. 56.
Umegae - NME, Leiden, 1353-665c⁶⁶Kyrova, Magda, et al., The Ear Catches the Eye. Music in Japanese Prints. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000, p. 57.
Yamauba - NME, Leiden, 1353-665b
Koga - NME, Leiden, 1353-665e

A man in black kimono kneels before a courtier who is raising one arm over his head. A tree in the foreground.

The Urin-in Temple, Urinin, from A Series of Ten Prints for the Hisakataya Poetry Club, Hisakataya juban no uchi.

Urinin is a No taking its name from a temple in Kyoto where Kinmitsu, an enthusiastic admirer of the Tales of Ise, Ise monogatari, went to meet the great poet Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), to whom this work was formerly attributed. The Tales of Ise is a collection of short stories, generally beginning with the phrase 'Once there was a man...', Mukashi otoko arikeri... (for a good translation with comments, see Frits Vos,_ A Study of the Ise-monogatari_, 2 vols., The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1957).

For a very similar design by Hokkei after the same play, cf. Kruml.⁷⁷Kruml, Richard. _, Catalogue 15. London, 1975, p. 30.

Two poems by Gachoan Michitane, and Hisakataya [Misora, a leader of the Hisakatayaren].

Issued by the Hisakatayaren
Signature reading: Hokuba ga
Printer: Yuyukan Kokan

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 264

M. Forrer, 2013, 'Teisai Hokuba, Scene from a Nō Play, Japan, c. 1821', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200482849