Meiji prints


  Design: Yamamoto Shōun (1870-1965)  
  Print title: Hunting in a river  
  Album/series title: Kodomo Asobi (Children playing)  
  Size: 20.4 x 30.0 cm (ōban)  
  Original woodblock print    
  Photography: Jacques Commandeur
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Yamamoto Shoun Kodomo Asobi Hunting in a river

Enlargement


Special effects: embossed fabric printing (nuno-me-zuri) on the white garment of the standing boy on the bridge; deep embossing (kara-zuri) on the white-and-blue garments of the two boys crouching on the bridge and in the water.

This print has no vertical fold in the middle, indicating that it was issued separately and not as part of an orihon (i.e., folding book).

Artist’s signature and red Shōun seal in bottom left print area:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
shō rise  
un cloud Shōun

Series title in right margin:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
ko child  
tomo serve  
a    
so    
bi play Children playing

Followed by print title:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
kawa river  
kari hunting Hunting in a river

Printing and publishing dates in left margin:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
mei light Printed in the
ji government Meiji era,
yon three  
ten  
nen year the 40th year (= 1907),
san three  
gatsu month the 3rd month (= March),
廿 nijū twenty  
go five
nichi day the 25th day.
in stamp  
satsu print
       
kon now Published in
nen year the same year,
yon four  
gatsu month March,
     
tsuitachi the first day  
hatsu emit  
go the first day.

Followed by the publisher’s address, name and telephone number:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
ga drawing  
saku make  
in stamp  
satsu print  
ken combine  
hatsu emit  
go Painter, printer,
sha person and publisher,
       
east  
kyō capital Tokyo city,
ni sun  
hon origin  
hashi brdge  
ku district Nihonbashi district,
yoshi good luck  
kawa river  
chō quarter Yoshikawa quarter,
ni two  
ban number  
chi earth, land number 2,
       
matsu pine  
ki tree  
hei level  
kichi good luck Matsuki Heikichi,
       
den electricity  
wa conversation  
ni two  
sen thousand  
ni two  
hyaku hundred  
hachi eight  
ten  
roku six  
ban number telephone number: 2286.

Name and address of the publisher in romaji in left bottom margin: “Sold by Daikokaya, H. Matsuki, No. 2, Yoshikawa-cho, Ryogoku, Tokyo, Japan.”


References


Provenance: Artelino

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