Advanced Search
Advanced Search

Women's Gagaku Concert under Cherry Blossoms: Biwa, from the series Pentaptych for the Hisakataya Poetry Club (Hisakataya gobantsuzuki)


「久かた屋五ばんつゞき」 桜下美人雅楽 琵琶
Yashima Gakutei (Japanese, 1786?–1868)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1827 (Bunsei 10)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (surimono); ink, color, and metallic pigment on paper
Dimensions Shikishiban; 22 x 18.8 cm (8 11/16 x 7 7/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19867
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Rijksmuseum, The Ear Catches the Eye (2001), #2; Keyes, Art of Surimono (Chester Beatty cat., 1985), vol. 1, #90; Rijksmuseum cat. III, Hokusai and His School (1982), #240b; Polster & Marks, Surimono (1980), p. 53 (complete)
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.19867, 2009.4994.5

The complete pentaptych (order uncertain): 11.19864-8 (complete); 2009.4994.2-5 (four sheets only)

Poems translated in Keyes 1985, vol. 1, p. 118; and in Polster & Marks 1980, pp. 49-49A.
Signed Gakutei hitsu
岳亭筆
InscriptionsPoem by Gachoan Michitane: Hana no moto/ no kangen ni tsurete/ tanzaku mo/ harukaze ni mau/ miyoshino no yama

Poem by Hisakataya: Môsen ni/ hana ni san rin/ harukaze no/ harau to otosu/ biwa no ikkyoku
花のもとの管弦につれて短さくも はる風にまふによしのゝ山

もせんに花に三りん春風の はらうとおとす琵琶の一曲
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.