Preparing Seven-herb Porridge (nazuna) for the New Year, ca. 1766-67

Details

Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)
Preparing Seven-herb Porridge (nazuna) for the New Year, ca. 1766-67
Woodcut of a young woman chopping on a board balanced on a washtub spring herbs to flavor a special porridge of rice gruel eaten on the seventh day of the first month of a new year, in the background a festooned stand set for the meal--very good impression and generally very good color, purple pigment at collar slightly faded, minor foxing, generally very good condition
chuban tate-e: 11 x 7 7/8in. (27.8 x 20cm.)

Provenance

Henri Vever (1854-1943), Paris (red seal lower right)

Literature

Pari Beberu korekushon ukiyoe meisaku 300 senten 300 Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Prints from the Vever Collection, exh. cat. (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai shinbunsha, 1975), no. 38.

Jack Hillier, Japanese Prints and Drawings from the Vever Collection, vol. 1 (London and New York: Philip Wilson Publishers, Rizzoli International and Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1976), pl. 103.

Jack Hillier, Suzuki Juzo and Adachi Toyohisa, Ukiyo-e: Beberu korekushon (Ukiyo-e from the Vever Collection) (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai shinbunsha, 1976), no. 94.
Sotheby's, London, Highly Important Japanese Prints from the Henri Vever Collection: Final Part, 30 October 1997, lot 13.

Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Gime Toyo Bijutsukan, Pari Kokuritsu Toshokan Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Henri Vever Collection, Huguette Berès Collection, vol. 12 of Ukiyoe shuka (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1980), pl. 152.

Exhibited

"Pari Beberu korekushon ukiyo-e meisaku 300 senten 300 Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Prints from the Vever Collection," shown at the following venues:
Keio Department Store, Tokyo, 1975.1.4-15
Hanshin Department Store, Osaka, 1975.2.6-18
Sogo Department Store, Hiroshima, 1975.4.21-26

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "The Max Palevsky Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints," 2001.2.8-5.15

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Lot Essay

Hillier remarks in his 1976 book on the collection (no. 103) on the rarity of the design, noting its omission from Yoshida Teruji, Harunobu zenshu (Complete works of Harunobu) (Tokyo: Takamizawa mokuhansha, 1942). For the version in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (11.19470) access .

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