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Two Beauties Playing Neck Tug-of-war: For the West, Okita of the Naniwaya, and for the East, Ohisa of the Takashimaya (Nishi no kata Naniwaya Kita, higashi no kata Takashima Hisa)


二美人の首引き 「西の方 なにわやきた 東の方 たかしまひさ」
Kitagawa Utamaro I (Japanese, early 1750s–1806)
Publisher: Tsuruya Kiemon (Senkakudô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1793–94 (Kansei 5–6)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Horizontal ôban; 26 x 38.6 cm (10 1/4 x 15 3/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.14440
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Asano & Clark, Passionate Art (1995), #113; Ukiyo-e shûka 3 (1978), list #86.3, pl. 136; Shibui, Ukiyo-e zuten Utamaro (1964), 235.1.3 (no inscription); Yoshida, Utamaro zenshû (1941), #168 (no inscription); Ukiyo-e taisei 7 (1931), #374 (no inscription)
Signed Utamaro hitsu
歌麿筆
Marks Censor's seal: kiwame
改印:極
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.