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Carp, from an untitled series known as Large Fish (supplemental group)


魚尽くし 鯉
Utagawa Hiroshige I (Japanese, 1797–1858)
Publisher: Yamadaya Shôjirô (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1840–42 (Tenpô 11–13)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Horizontal ôban; 25.4 x 36.2 cm (10 x 14 1/4 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.17179
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Menegazzo, Hiroshige: Visioni dal Giappone (2018), #III.7; Ôta Mem. Mus., Hiroshige kachôga ten (1998), #121; Ukiyo-e shûka 14 (1981), Hiroshige list, p. 243, horizontal ôban #100.05; Tanba 1965, #424
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.17179, 11.17180, 21.9616

The first edition of this series was privately printed in the form of a kyôka poetry album in the orihon format, with ten illustrated sheets and four sheets of text only. Soon afterward, the blocks were reused for commercial prints, with the publisher's mark and censor's kiwame seal added (and in a few cases, different poems). One additional design, the trout, was included in the commercial series; and another nine designs were added still later by a different publisher. For a full reproduction and detailed discussion of the first edition, see Mann 2021, pp. 290-311.
Signed Hiroshige ga
広重画
Marks No censor's seal
No blockcutter's mark
Artist's seal: Ichiryûsai
改印:なし
彫師:なし
InscriptionsPoem: Matsu tsui ni/ kumoi no tatsu to/ narinubeshi/ kawase o noboru/ koi no ikioi
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.