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The Song Kogiku and Hanbei in Threads of Spring Rain (Kogiku Hanbei Ito no Samidare), on Scrap-paper Fabric with a Kiyomoto-bushi Libretto (Kiyomoto-bushi no hogo-zome motoki), from the series A Modern Pine Needle Collection (Tôsei matsu no ha)


「当世松の葉 小菊半兵衛 糸の五月雨 清元節の反古染もどき」
Keisai Eisen (Japanese, 1790–1848)
Publisher: Echizen'ya Kihei (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
late 1820s

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 37.3 x 25 cm (14 11/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.17879
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Other prints in the series: Chiba City Museum of Art, Keisai Eisen (2012), #s 282-283
DescriptionPossibly a triptych: 11.17878 (right), 11.17879 (left), 11.17880 (center)

The original Pine Needle Collection (Matsu no ha), published in 1703, was an anthology of nagauta songs. The fan-shaped insets show male characters from the narratives of the modern ballads, while the main figures are fashionable young women who presumably enjoy listening to the songs. The background designs represent hogo-zome, a cheap fabric made from recycled writing paper.
Signed Keisai Eisen ga
渓斎英泉画
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.