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Actor Shidô (Ôtani Tomoemon V), from the series Seven Poems for Good Fortune at Sunrise on New Year's Day in the Modern World (Tôsei hinode shichifuku kuren)


当世日の出七冨句連 「紫道」 (五代目大谷友右エ門)
Toyohara Kunichika (Japanese, 1835–1900)
Publisher: Iseya Rihei (Kinjudô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
1865 (Genji 2/Keiô 1), 12th month

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 35.6 × 24.4 cm (14 × 9 5/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.40609
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

DescriptionActors are tying poems signed with their poetry names to snow-covered branches of red plum. The MFA has five of the seven sheets of the series; the other two, including the right sheet with the series title, are in the Waseda database. The seven sheets fit together as a heptaptych, probably in the following order, from right to left:

Sheet 1: Waseda db 007-0778, Ichimura Kakitsu IV
Sheet 2: 11.40609, Ôtani Tomoemon V
Sheet 3: Waseda db 007-0761, Kawarazaki Gonjûrô I
Sheet 4: 11.40610, Nakamura Shikan IV
Sheet 5: 11.40611, Bandô Hikosaburô V
Sheet 6: 11.40536, Sawamura Tanosuke III
Sheet 7: 11.40612, Ichikawa Kuzô III
Signed Kunichika hitsu
国周筆
Marks Censor's seal: Ox 12 aratame
No blockcutter's mark
改印:丑十二改
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.