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If You Use a Dog Trained to Hunt with Small Hawks for Hunting with Large Hawks... (Kotaka ni yoki inu ôtaka ni tsukainureba), from the series Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa)


「つれ/\草」 「小鷹によき犬 大鷹につかひぬれば」
Totoya Hokkei (Japanese, 1780–1850)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1831–2 (Tenpô 2–3)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (surimono); ink, color, and metallic pigment on paper
Dimensions Shikishiban; 19.7 x 17.7 cm (7 3/4 x 6 15/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.20600
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Description(the original text continues) ... then the dog will become useless for hunting with small hawks. Similarly, people who become involved in large matters lose interest in small ones.
From section 174 of Tsurezuregusa (a collection of essays by Kenkô, written in the early 1330s).
Commissioned by the Manjiren poetry circle.
Signed Hokkei
北渓
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.