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The Seaweed Gathering Ritual (Mekari no shinji)


和布刈の神事
Totoya Hokkei (Japanese, 1780–1850)
Japanese
Edo period
early 1830s

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Shikishiban; 21.8 x 18 cm (8 9/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19819
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Mirviss w/ Carpenter, Jewels of Japanese Printmaking (2000), #48; Chiba Museum, Edo no surimono (1997), #282; Hillier, Vever cat. 3 (1976), #765
DescriptionPoems translated in Mirviss w/ Carpenter 2000, p. 96.
Signed Ôju Hokkei hitsu
応需北渓筆
InscriptionsPoem by Miwasha Suginari of Nagato Province: Mekari shite/ kakureru michi wa/ usugasumi/ hayatomo no miya ni/ haru wa kinikeri
Poem by Konkotei Yamagiwa of Yamaguchi in Suô Province: Mojigaseki/ kasumu ashita ni/ hayatomo no/ ura-ura miete/ wakame kariramu
布刈して かくれる道は 薄霞 はやともの宮に 春ハ来にけり  三輪舎杉成
文字か関 かすむあしたに はやともの うらうらみえて 若布刈らむ  周防山口 箟口亭山際
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.