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Three-part Dogs for Special Use (Tokuyô muki inu no sanwari): Three Dogs Look LIke Nine, Two Dogs Look like Four (Sanbiki no inu kyûhiki ni mieru, nihiki no inu yonhiki ni miyuru)


「徳用向犬の三わり 三びきの犬九ひきにみへる 二ひきのいぬ四ひきのみゆる」
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)
Japanese
Edo period
1847–52 (Kôka 4–Kaei 5)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 37 x 25 cm (14 9/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.36718
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Salter, Japanese Popular Prints (2006), p. 139, fig. 146; Inagaki, Edo no asobi-e (1988), #55
DescriptionA fortune-teller's table is overturned by fighting street dogs. The dogs are drawn as composites, with one head connected to two or three bodies, so that counting the dogs becomes a puzzle.
Signed Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi giga
一勇斎国芳戯画
Marks Censors' seals: Muramatsu, Yoshimura
No blockcutter's mark
No publisher's mark
Artist's seal: kiri
改印:村松、吉村
彫師:なし
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.