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No. 5, Silver Coins (Go, Nanryô), from the series Famous Horses (Meiba soroe)


「名馬揃 五 南鐐」
Yanagawa Shigenobu II (Japanese, active about 1830–60)
Japanese
Edo period
1834 (Tenpô 5)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Shikishiban; 20.8 x 18 cm (8 3/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.20724
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Carpenter et al, Reading Surimono (2008), #238; Hillier, Vever cat. 3 (1976), #797
DescriptionPoems translated in Carpenter et al 2008, p. 360.
The titles and poems in this series play on the names of famous horses in Japanese history. Nanryô was the name of a twelfth-century warrior's horse mentioned in Heike monogatari.
Signed Nisei Yanagawa Shigenobu ga
二世柳川重信画
InscriptionsPoem by Kirakuan Mitsumaro: Shirokane no/ iro utsukushiki/ hito hira no/ yuki chirikakaru/ hana no shitabushi

Poem by Chikujuen Shigeyasu: Funazoko no/ makura o yosete/ hana no nami/ miru zo tanoshiki/ haru no fukagawa

Poem by Ichiryûken Kazutori: Yuki tokeshi/ mizu no nagare ya/ mizu kiyoki/ itsutsu no machi no/ hoka no ukareme
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.