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Actor Onoe Kikujirô II as Okaru in The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers, a Primer (Kanadehon Chûshingura)


仮名手本忠臣蔵 「おかる」二代目尾上菊次郎
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi (Eikyûdô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
1847 (Kôka 4), 6th month

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (key block); ink on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 40.4 x 28.2 cm (15 7/8 x 11 1/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.38139
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Asano et al., Chûshingura VII (2014), list #1-593 (no photo)
DescriptionCenter sheet of incomplete triptych.

The MFA has two different versions of this triptych, with different actors in the right sheet and different censors' seals on all sheets: 11.38479a-c, plus 11.38139 (key block for the same version, center sheet only); and 2009.4992.10a-c. The latter seems to be a recycling of the two left blocks for a later production featuring the same lead actor (Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII), but at a different theater with a different supporting cast.

Play: Chûshin Meimei Kikigaki Zôsho
Theater: Nakamura
忠臣列撰随筆蔵(ちゅうしんめいめいききがきぞうしょ)
中村
1847、弘化04
Signed Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Marks Censors' seals: Muramatsu, Yoshimura
No blockcutter's mark
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.