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Hagi, from the series Beauties of the Floating World Compared to Flowers (Ukiyo bijin yosebana)


「浮世美人寄花 娘風 萩」 (剪綵)
Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725–1770)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1770 (Meiwa 7)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper, with sections cut out and backed with fabric (sensai)
Dimensions Vertical chûban; 27.7 x 19.2 cm (10 7/8 x 7 9/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19492
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Waterhouse, The Harunobu Decade (2013), #483; Ukiyo-e shûka 4 (1979), list #262.7, and supp. 2 (1982), pl. 526
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.19492, 11.30141

The print has been used for a traditional craft known as sensai ("textile cutout") in which areas of color are cut out and backed with fabric.
Signed Suzuki Harunobu ga
鈴木春信画
Inscriptions1. Haikai poem on stele: Nurete yuku/ hito wa okashi ya/ [ame no hagi]
2. Tanka poem above: Itodo mata/ orite zo masaru/ aki hagi no/ hana no nishiki no/ tsuyu no tatenuki
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.