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Pitt Rivers Museum

1989.44.116

Print of boys playing with small dolls.


1989.44.116

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Print of boys playing with small dolls.
Long description
The dolls appear to be a sumo wrestlers. There are also plates of sweets. In the background a cat is breaking through the paper panel of the door, another cat is behind it. [El.B 04/03/2008]
Geographical reference
Tokyo
Cultural groups
Japanese
Date / Period
Date made: 1907
Date collected
1909
Acquisition information
Donated: 10/1989
Materials and processes
Material Paper Plant, Process Printed
Dimensions
Width 360 mm, Length 243 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1989.44.116
Research and responses

It has been identified by Fusa McLynn from the printed writing to the left of the image that the woodblock print was printed on 25 March 1907 (Meiji 40) and published a few days later on 1 April 1907; it was sold by Daikokuya, a shop in Tokyo whose owner is described on the print as being Heikichi MATSUKI. The print is from a larger series titled 'Kodomo Asobi' (literally, child play, i.e. trans. 'Children's Play'). The artist has been identified as Shōun YAMAMOTO (1870-1965), a Japanese print designer, painter and illustrator whose work spans the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa periods. For further information on Shōun Yamamoto, see Masako Gotō, Yamamoto Shōun: A View of Nostalgic Japan and the Beauties of those Days (2005); and Masako Gotō, 'Yamamoto Shōun, His Life and Works', Daruma Magazine, 62 (Spring 2009), pp.36-51. [PG 24/10/2018]

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