Advanced Search
Advanced Search

No. 4 (Sono yon): Ama no Tajikara no Mikoto, from the series The Cave Door of Spring (Haru no iwato)


「春磐戸 其四」
Totoya Hokkei (Japanese, 1780–1850)
Japanese
Edo period
1820s

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (surimono); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Shikishiban; 21 x 18.7 cm (8 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19835
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné McKee, Japanese Poetry Prints (Schoff Coll. cat., 2006), #55; Mirviss w/ Carpenter, Jewels of Japanese Printmaking (2000), #45; Rijksmus., The Ear Catches the Eye (2001), #63 (complete); Polster & Marks, Surimono (1980), p. 183 (3 sheets only)
DescriptionPentaptych, "11.19809, 11.19833-6": 11.19809 (CR), 11.19833 (R), 11.19834 (C), 11.19835 (CL), 11.19836 (L)

Poems for this sheet (CL) translated in McKee 2006, p. 157, and in Goodall, Living for the Moment (Bowman Coll. exh. cat., 2015), pp. 113-5.
Signed Hokkei
北渓
InscriptionsPoem by Iwa Tamori: Tsukihiboshi/ hikari no tokeki/ uguisu no/ uta no chikara ni/ akuru amanoto

Poem by Dondontei: Ôkagura/ maiko mukadono/ iwatokô/ abura no niou/ otomego no kami
月日星 光のとけき 鶯の 歌の力に あくる天の戸  倭和多守
太神楽 舞こむ門の 岩戸香 油のにほふ をとめ子の髪  鈍々亭
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.