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Courtesans Viewing Cherry Blossoms: Utahime of the Matsubaya, kamuro Kanomo and Konomo


仲之町の桜 (校合摺)
Torii Kiyonaga (Japanese, 1752–1815)
Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
1785 (Tenmei 5)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (key block); ink on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 38.6 x 27 cm (15 3/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.13959
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné MFA, Printed Treasures (2008), #60; Chiba Museum, Torii Kiyonaga (2007), list #30, pl. 124; Ukiyo-e shûka 2 (1985), list #38; Ukiyo-e shûka 5 (1980), pls. 181-3; Hirano, Kiyonaga (1939), #797, pl. LXXII
DescriptionCenter sheet of incomplete triptych.

MFA impressions: 11.13959 (C, key block), 11.14007-9 (complete triptych), 11.14010-2 (complete triptych), 21.7431-2 (L and C)

Dateable to 1785 by checking the names of the kamuro in Yoshiwara guidebooks; see Ukiyo-e shûka 5, pp. 200-1.
Signed Kiyonaga ga
清長画
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.