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Java Sparrow on Magnolia (Bunchô, kobushi no hana), from an untitled series known as Small Flowers


中判花鳥 「文鳥 辛夷花」
Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1834 (Tenpô 5)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical chûban; 25.6 x 18.6 cm (10 1/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.20436
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Clark et al, Hokusai: Beyond ... (2017), #92; TNM, Hokusai (2005), #374; San Francisco, Hokusai & Hiroshige (1998), #97; Ukiyo-e shûka 16 (1981), p. 227, vertical chûban #22.06
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.20436 (2nd ed.), 11.25142 (1st ed.), 21.10220 (1st ed.)

Poem translated in Clark et al, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave (2017), p. 176.
Signed Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu
前北斎為一筆
Marks Censor's seal: kiwame
改印:極
InscriptionsChinese poem by the literati painter Chen Shun (1483-1544)
「東風日夜発 桃李不禁吹 検点濃華事 辛夷落較遅 陳淳」
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.