Monkey Trainer
Totoya Hokkei
(Japanese, 1780–1850)
1824 (Bunsei 7) or 1836 (Tenpô 7)
Medium/TechniqueHanging scroll; ink and color on silk
DimensionsImage: 108 x 53.8 cm (42 1/2 x 21 3/16 in.)
Credit LineWilliam Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession number11.7381
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
A trained monkey, a popular form of entertainment, rests playfully on his trainer’s back. Most likely commissioned during the Year of the Monkey, this painting commemorates the 1,600th poetry meeting of the Go-gawa poetry club, whose hourglass-shaped insignia decorates the parasol resting on the ground. Appropriate for such a meeting, the poems of eleven different poets are inscribed in the upper portion of the work.
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.
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.
Takamasa
19th century
19th century
15th century
14th century
latter half of the 13th century
15th century