painting;
hanging scroll;
forgery
- Museum number
- 1881,1210,0.1704
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll, forgery. Courtesan seated with woman playing shamisen. Ink, colour and gold on silk. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1800-1880 (c.)
- Dimensions
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Height: 97.50 centimetres
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Width: 33 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Clark 1992
The signature here is written with the character 'nobu' meaning 'truth' rather than the one meaning 'to say' or 'announce' with which the great Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694) signed his name. Asano Shugo ('GUDHJ', vol. 2 (1982), p. 131) notes that the dictionary of painters 'Gajo yoryaku' (1832) seems to have made a similar mistake about Moronobu, and it may be that this mistake about the name was common at the time this forgery was made. At best it can be regarded as a feeble nineteenth-century pastiche in archaistic style.
Literature:
Anderson, William, 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum'. London, Trustees of the British Museum, 1886, no. 1704.
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'1704. Probably an old copy.' 'signed 師信'
'Not in the Tosa manner.' (unattributed annotations in the specially interleaved Japanese Study Room copy of Anderson 1886)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1881
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of over 2,000 Japanese and Chinese paintings assembled by Prof. William Anderson during his residency in Japan, 1873-1880, was acquired by the Museum in 1881. The items were not listed in the register, but rather were published separately as the 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum' (Longmans & Co, 1886).
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1881,1210,0.1704
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1377 (Japanese Painting Number)