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Title page, from the series Actors for the Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road (Yakusha mitate Tôkaidô gojûsan eki), also called Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi)


「役者見立 東海道五十三駅」 目録
Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III) (Japanese, 1786–1864)
Blockcutter: Yokokawa Takejirô (Hori Take)
Printer: Ôumiya Kyûtarô (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
1852 (Kaei 5)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 34 x 24 cm (13 3/8 x 9 7/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.29525.1
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné Marks, Kunisada's Tôkaidô (2013), #T63-00 (with more colors), p. 160
DescriptionMFA impressions: 11.29525.1, 11.43297, 59.1147.2

This not-for-sale sheet (possibly given away as a bonus gift when prints were purchased) identifies the actors (some deceased) shown in the 55 sheets of the original series, before the extra designs were added.
The impression illustrated in Marks, Kunisada's Tôkaidô (2013), has alternating shades of red and pink as background for the actors' names, but all three MFA impressions have color only in the border.
「東海道五十三次之内」シリーズの目録。
Signed Ichiyôsai Toyokuni ga
一陽斎豊国画
Marks kinbaibai ("not for sale") seal
Blockcutter's mark: Horikô Yokokawa Takejirô
Printer's mark: Surikô Ôumiya Kyûtarô
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.