Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Cotton Transport Ships Racing to Edo Set Sail from the Mouth of the River (Higaki shinmen bansen kawaguchi shuppan no zu)


「菱垣新綿番船川口出帆之図」
Gansuitei Yoshitoyo (Japanese, died 1866)
Blockcutter: Seiyôken (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1854–59 (Ansei era)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban triptych; 36 x 73 cm (14 3/16 x 28 3/4 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.36247a-c
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Harada, Edo no shoku bunka (2014), p. 107; Musée national d'histoire et d'art, Luxembourg, Schätze der Kamigata (exh. cat., 2012), #171; Kitagawa, "Bosuton bijutsukan shozô Kamigata-e mokuroku" (Kansai daigaku, 2007), p. 126
DescriptionThe fall race of cargo ships carrying cotton from the mouth of the Aji River in Osaka to the port of Uraga, near Edo, was a festive annual event carried out from 1694 until the early Meiji era. In the 1859 race, the fastest ship made the trip in just over two days, although the usual time for the route was about fifteen days.
Signed Yoshitoyo ga (on right sheet)
芳豊画
Marks Blockcutter's mark: Horinushi Seiyôken
彫主 盛陽軒
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850–d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 19, 2005)

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.