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Courtesan Writing, with an inset portrait of Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô V (Godaime Mukôjima Oyadama Danjûrô), from a series of women with actors of the Danjûrô line and advertisements for Senjokô


「五代目向島親玉団十郎」(五代目市川団十郎) 筆を持つ花魁
Utagawa Toyokuni II (Toyoshige) (Japanese, about 1802–1835)
Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about early 1830s

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 38.2 x 25.8 cm (15 1/16 x 10 3/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.25904
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

DescriptionThe inset designs are based on a surimono series first designed around 1820 by Toyokuni I for the Gogawa-ren, with their hourglass-shaped symbol decorating the margin. A second version of the series was issued by Toyokuni II in the early 1830s, with different poems and without the club symbol. Here, Toyokuni II may be advertising his own reprint surimono series as well as the cosmetic face powder Senjokô.
MFA prints in the series: 11.25903, 11.25904
Signed Gosotei Toyokuni ga
後素亭豊国画
Marks Censor's seal: kiwame
改印:極
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.