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Actors Bandô Jutarô I as Lady Iwafuji (R), Nakamura Tomijûrô II as the Servant Ohatsu (C), and Mimasu Gennosuke I as Chûrô Onoe (L)


「局岩ふじ 坂東寿太郎」(初代)  「お初 中村富十郎」(二代目)  「中老尾上 三枡源之助」(初代)
Hasegawa Sadanobu I (Japanese, 1809–1879)
Publisher: Tenmaya Kihei (Tenki) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
1838 (Tenpô 9), 1st month

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban triptych; 37.5 x 76.3 cm (14 3/4 x 30 1/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.36462a-c
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Kitagawa, "Bosuton bijutsukan shozô Kamigata-e mokuroku" (Kansai daigaku, 2007), p. 103; Ikeda bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shûsei, vol. 3 (2001), #012; Kubo Tsunehiko and Sons Collection Ukiyo-e Hanga (2004), #38-20
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.36462a-c (complete triptych), 17.3211.13-4 (two left sheets only)

Play: Kagamiyama Kokyô no Nishikie (Color Prints of the Old Home Town at Mirror Mountain)
Theater: Kado

The background of the triptych represents a woven plaid fabric, with appliqued letters made of other dyed fabrics spelling out the title of the play. This unusual compositional technique gives a fresh twist to the ever-popular story of the brave maidservant Ohatsu, who foils the plots of the evil lady-in-waiting Iwafuji.
加賀見山旧錦絵

Signed Hasegawa Sadanobu ga (on each sheet)
長谷川貞信画
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.