Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Eight Brides for an Only Son (Hitori musuko ni yome hachinin): Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII and His Fans


「独息子(ひとりむすこ)に嫁八人(よめはちにん)」 八代目市川団十郎
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)
Publisher: Enshûya Hikobei (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1849 (Kaei 2)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban diptych; 37.7 x 50.8 cm (14 13/16 x 20 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.21611-2
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Ôta Mem. Mus., Warau ukiyo-e (2013), #144; Inagaki and Isao, Kuniyoshi no kyôga (1991), #83
DescriptionDiptych: 11.21611 (left), 11.21612 (right)

MFA impressions: 11.21611-2 (complete diptych), 11.22131 (left sheet only)

The paintings in the background show two deities popular in around 1849: the rice god Inari as an old man, worshipped at Nihonbashi, and the Hag of Hell (Datsueba), worshipped at ShInjuku.
Signed Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga (on each sheet)
一勇斎国芳画
Marks Censors' seals: Kinugasa, Yoshimura
No blockcutter's mark
改印:衣笠、吉村
彫師:なし
InscriptionsPoem by Umeya
「梅屋 一輪の牡丹にうしのつのめたつ恋あらそいは娵も八人」
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.