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The Taikô and His Five Wives on an Excursion to the East of Kyoto (Taikô gosai Rakutô yûkan no zu)


「太閤五妻洛東遊観之図」
Kitagawa Utamaro I (Japanese, early 1750s–1806)
Publisher: Kagaya (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1803–04 (Kyôwa 3–Bunka 1)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban triptych; 39 x 76.2 cm (15 3/8 x 30 in.)
Credit Line William S. and John T. Spaulding Collection
Accession Number21.7697-9
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Machida City Mus., Dai musha-e ten (2003), #II-1; Asano & Clark, Passionate Art, #432; Ukiyo-e shûka 3 (1978), list #511.1-3, figs. 26-8; Shibui, Ukiyo-e zuten Utamaro (1964), 40.3.1-3; Yoshida, Utamaro zenshû (1941), #615; Ukiyo-e taisei 7 (1931), #338
DescriptionTriptych: 21.7697 (left), 21.7698 (center), 21.7699 (right)

MFA impressions: 11.14509-11, 21.7697-9

The triptych depicts a historical event of of 1598, the 15th day of the third month, when the ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who used the title Taikô, held a cherry-blossom viewing party at Daigo-ji temple, just east of Kyoto. The names of individual figures inscribed on the print are, from right: Lady Kana (Kana dono), Lady Sanjô, Ishida Mitsunari, Lord Hideyoshi the Taikô (Taikô Hideyoshi kô), Lady Matsu-no-maru (Matsu-no-maru dono), Okoi no kata, Lady Yodo (Yodo dono), Kita no Mandokoro.
On the 16th day of the fifth month, 1804, Utamaro was punished for designing prints based on the book Ehon Taikôki (Illustrated Chronicles of the Taikô); this print may have been one of the problem pictures.

Signed Utamaro hitsu (on each sheet)
歌麿筆
Marks No censor's seal
改印:なし
ProvenanceJune 23, 1913, purchased by William S. and John T. Spaulding at Sotheby's; December 1, 1921, given by William S. and John T. Spaulding to the Museum.