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The Tale of Genji: The Shell of the Locust (Genji Utsusemi), no. 3 from the series Genji in Fifty-Four Sheets (Genji gojûyonmai no uchi)


「げんじ五十四まいのうち 第三番 げんじ空蝉」
Nishimura Shigenaga (Japanese, 1697?–1756)
Publisher: Izumiya Gonshirô (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1735 (Kyôhô 20)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (beni-e); ink on paper, with hand-applied and stenciled color and metallic powder
Dimensions Horizontal hosoban; 16.1 x 33.3 cm (6 5/16 x 13 1/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19130
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Waterhouse, Images of Eighteenth-Century Japan (1975), #40 (described but not illustrated); the series: Marks et al., Genji's World (2012), list #G546 (no photos)
Signed Yamato gakô Nishimura Shigenaga hitsu
大和画工 西村重長筆
Marks Artist's seal: Shige
InscriptionsPoem: Utsusemi ni/ mi o kaetekeru/ ko no moto ni/ nao hitogara no/ natsukashiki ka na
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.