Edo prints


  Design: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)  
  Title: The Mie river near Yokkaichi  
  Series title: The fifty-three stations of the Tokaidō road  
  Size: 22.3 x 34.9 cm (ōban)  
  Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks    
  Photography: Jacques Commandeur
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Hiroshige The Mie river near Yokkaichi

Enlargement


Originally published by Takenouchi Magohachi ca. 1831-1834. This reproduction was published by Ōedo Mokuhansha in Tokyo in the early 1950s.

Kiwame (“approved”) censorship seal in lower left margin.

Artist’s signature in right print area:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
hiro broad  
shige heavy Picture by
ga picture Hiroshige

Followed by red Hōeidō (保永堂) publisher seal, indicating that this print belongs to Hiroshige’s first - and in my opinion best - woodblock print series dedicated to the 53 stations of the Tōkaidō road.

Series title in top left print area:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
east  
kai street  
way  
go five  
ten  
san three  
tsugi next  
no ’s The fifty-three stations
uchi inside of the Tōkaidō road

Followed by the name of the station:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
yon four  
ka day  
ichi market Yokkaichi

And the print title in a gourd-shaped red seal:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
mi three  
e -fold  
kawa river The Mie river

Name of the publisher in black rectangle in right margin:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
ō big  
e bay  
to door  
moku wood  
han block Ōedo
sha company Mokuhansha

Names of the carver and printer in right margin:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
hori carver  
shi master Carver:
       
mae in front of  
ta rice field Maeda
ken humility  
ta fat  
counter for sons Kentarō
       
suri printer  
shi master Printer:
       
i that one  
wisteria Itō
tomo wisdom  
son Tomorō


References


Provenance: Fuji Arts

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