Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.

Onion Head (Negibōzu)


Nikkyô Music Sheet (Nikkyô gakufu) No.137
日響楽譜 No.137 葱坊主
Designer: Onchi Kôshirô (Japanese, 1891–1955)
Composer: Yamada Kôsaku (Japanese, 1886 – 1965)
Lyricist: Saijô Yaso (Japanese, 1892 – 1970)
Publisher: Nihon kôkyôgaku kyôkai shuppanbu (Nikkyô shuppan kyôkai)
Japanese
Shôwa era
1928 (Shôwa 3)

Medium/Technique Color lithograph; ink on paper
Dimensions Height x width: 30 × 23 cm (11 13/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson
Accession Number2023.1133.1-2
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsMusical scores

DescriptionTranslation of lyrics from Japanese, by Kuniko and Kendall Brown:
“A traveler, a traveler,
In the center of the Shimoda Road
Alone and crying he passed.
Why did he cry as he passed?
Crossing mountains, crossing seas,
Finally returning to his home where,
Round knobs of the temple come into sight.
Taking off his traveler’s hat and running up,
It’s the onion heads grown in the fields,
Thus was he sad, crying as he passed."
ProvenanceBy 2019, Mary and Robert Levenson, Belleair, FL; 2023, gift of Mary and Robert Levenson to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 13, 2023)