Advanced Search 
「名所江戸百景 市中繁栄七夕祭」
The City Flourishing, Tanabata Festival (Shichû han'ei Tanabata Matsuri), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)
「名所江戸百景 市中繁栄七夕祭」
Japanese
Edo period
1857 (Ansei 4), 7th month
Medium/Technique
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions
Vertical ôban; 33.5 x 21.9 cm (13 3/16 x 8 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.16881
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
Present-day Tanabata decorations are most often at ground level, but during the Edo period it was customary to attach them to the clothes-drying platforms on the roofs of city houses. Hiroshige shows the view from one such platform, looking out over the city, with the household’s own bamboo pole at the left. Beyond the sea of festival decorations are fire-watch towers and the distant roofs of Edo Castle, with Mount Fuji visible on the horizon.
Catalogue Raisonné
Sakai, Hiroshige Edo fûkei (1996), list #12.8, pls. 216-217; Smith & Poster, 100 Views (1986), #73; Ukiyo-e shûka 14 (1981), Hiroshige list, p. 250, vertical ôban #62.47; Genshoku ukiyo-e dai hyakka jiten 5 (1980), #43
DescriptionNo. 073 (fall section) on the title page for the series.
MFA impressions: 11.16881, 11.36876.49, 21.10433
MFA impressions: 11.16881, 11.36876.49, 21.10433
Signed
Hiroshige hitsu
広重筆
広重筆
Marks
Censor's seals: (aratame, Snake 7; cut off of this impression)
No blockcutter's mark
No blockcutter's mark
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 - d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)
NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.
NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.