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Edo prints

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	Design:	Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
	Title:	Above and below Ryōgoku bridge
	Size:	37.6 x 25.4 cm (ōban)
	Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Originally released ca. 1795-6 by publisher Ōmiya Gonkurō, this version was published around the 1920s by publisher and designer Hashiguchi Goyō (1880-1921) from newly carved woodblocks.

Ladies from a feudal household are standing on Ryōgoku bridge and enjoying the scenery.

This is the first print in a spectacular hexaptych of woodblock prints. A simultaneous view of the prints in this hexaptych can be seen here.

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Artist’s signature on left pillar of the railing of Ryōgoku bridge:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
歌	uta	poem
麿	maro	you	Drawn by
筆	hitsu	writing brush	Utamaro

Followed by black Iwa seal and rectangular seal 23-068 of the original publisher Ōmiya Gonkurō containing his name and address: Hon Ōmiya Asakusa Kayamachi. See Marks (2011, p.69).

Red rectangular Goyo publisher seal in left margin of the print.

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References

• Asano, Shūgō, and Clark, Timothy (1995). The passionate art of Kitagawa Utamaro (2 volumes in slipcase). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.

• Collia-Suzuki, Gina (2009). The Complete Woodblock Prints of Kitagawa Utamaro. A Descriptive Catalogue. Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom: Nezu Press.

• Kobayashi, Tadashi (1993). Utamaro. Portraits from the Floating World. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

• Marks, Andreas (2011). Publishers of Japanese Woodblock Prints: A Compendium. Leiden: Hotei Publishing.

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Provenance: Chris Uhlenbeck’s Hotei Japanese Prints