Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Actors Iwai Shijaku I as Inusaka Keno Tanetomo (R) and Nakamura Shikan II as Inuta Kobungo Yasuyori (L), from the series Eight Dog Heroes of Satomi (Satomi hakkenshi uchi ikko)


「犬坂毛野胤智  里見八犬子之内一個  岩井紫若」(初代)  「犬田小文吾安悌  里見八犬子之内一個  中村芝翫」(二代目)
Shunbaisai Hokuei (Japanese, active about 1824–1837, died 1837)
Publisher: Shôhonya Seishichi (Honsei) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
late 1833 (Tenpô 4)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban diptych; 38.2 x 52.7 cm (15 1/16 x 20 3/4 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.35293-4
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Chiba Museum, Hakkenden no sekai (2008), #181; Kitagawa, "Bosuton bijutsukan shozô Kamigata-e mokuroku" (Kansai daigaku, 2007), p. 100; Ikeda bunko, Kamigata yakusha-e shûsei, vol. 2 (1998), #318
DescriptionDiptych: 11.35293 (right), 11.35294 (left)

From a set of four diptychs showing actors as the heroes of a bestselling adventure novel, not roles they had actually performed on stage but drawn from the artist's imagination (mitate).
「里見八犬子之内一個」
見立
Signed Shunkôsai Hokuei ga (on each sheet)
春江斎北英画
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 – d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)

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.