KITAGAWA UTAMARO: oban tate-e (37.1 x 23.8cm.); Daidozan Bungoro, the infant prodigy drinking sake and being offered tea by the famous beauty and teahouse waitress Okita of the Naniwaya and biscuits by her rival Ohisa of the Takashimaya, both identified by their crests, signed Utamaro hitsu and published by Tsuruya Kiemon--very good impression, slightly faded, trimmed and soiled, otherwise good condition

Details

KITAGAWA UTAMARO: oban tate-e (37.1 x 23.8cm.); Daidozan Bungoro, the infant prodigy drinking sake and being offered tea by the famous beauty and teahouse waitress Okita of the Naniwaya and biscuits by her rival Ohisa of the Takashimaya, both identified by their crests, signed Utamaro hitsu and published by Tsuruya Kiemon--very good impression, slightly faded, trimmed and soiled, otherwise good condition

Provenance

Hayashi Tadamasa, sold Paris, Hotel Drouot, 6 June, 1902, cat. no. 857
Otto Laporte, sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Nov. 30, 1982, lot 29

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Sumo and the Woodblock Print Masters, pl. 22

An amusing depiction of the two great beauties of the 1790's, Ohisa, identified by the triple leaf crest on her sleeve and the character Taka on the package, and Okita by the paulownia sprays on her robe. Daidozan Bungoro, the son of a Buzaemon of Murakami in Echigo, grew two feet high by the time he was nine months old in 1788. Bungoro thenceforth went on the road as a novelty act in wrestler costume in which he is usually depicted in prints by Sharaku, Choki or Utamaro.