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The Trigram Li, Fire: Profit, Returning Sails of Redeeming a Pawned Possession (Ri, Shichiuke no kihan), from the series Eight Views of Incidents in Daily Life: Women Representing the Eight Trigrams (Ningen banji ômi hakkei)


「人間万事愛婦美八卦意 (離)利 質請の帰帆」
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)
Publisher: Yamaguchiya Tôbei (Kinkôdô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1849–50 (Kaei 2–3)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 37.4 x 24.8 cm (14 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.15965
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné The series: Robinson, Kuniyoshi (1961), list #108
DescriptionMFA impressions: *11.15954 (deaccessioned in 2012), 11.15965, 11.28731

The series title puns on "Eight Views of Ômi" and "Feminine Beauty for the Eight Trigrams" (the symbols used in Chinese-style fortune-telling).
Each print shows a kanji character in a magnifying glass (used by a fortune-teller to study the physiognomy of a client) that sounds like the Japanese name of the trigram depicted above it, but actually refers to the circumstances shown in the print.
Signed Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi giga
一勇斎国芳戯画
Marks Censors' seals: Muramatsu, Yoshimura
No blockcutter's mark
改印:村松、吉村
彫師:なし
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.