Edo prints
| Design: | Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) | |||||
| Title: | Shōno, sudden rain | |||||
| Series title: | The fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō road | |||||
| Size: | 19.2 x 30.1 cm (ōban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally published by Takenouchi Magohachi ca. 1831-1834. The label on the accompanying folder indicates that the supervisors responsible for this reprint of the series were Yoshida Teruji (吉田 暎二) and Hirai Koichi (平井 孝一), that the carvers of the blocks were Maeda Kentarō (前田 謙太郎) and Matsuda Torazō (松田 寅蔵), and that the printing was done by Nakajō Kineo (中条 甲子雄) and Sugimoto Shinjiro (椙本 申次郎).
Kiwame (“approved”) censorship seal in lower left margin.
Artist’s signature in bottom left print area:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 広 | hiro | broad | |
| 重 | shige | heavy | Picture by |
| 画 | 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 |
| 東 | tō | east | |
| 海 | kai | street | |
| 道 | dō | way | |
| 五 | go | five | |
| 十 | jū | ten | |
| 三 | san | three | |
| 次 | tsugi | next | |
| の | no | ’s | The fifty-three stations |
| 内 | uchi | inside | of the Tōkaidō road |
Followed by the name of the station:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 庄 | shō | hamlet | |
| 野 | no | field | Shōno |
And the print title in a gourd-shaped red seal:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 白 | haku | white | |
| 雨 | u | rain | Sudden rain |
The umbrella of the man on the right bears two inscriptions: Takenouchi (竹のうち), the name of the original publisher of the series, and Gojūsan tsugi (五十三次), part of the title of the series.
References
- Forrer, Matthi (1994). Japanese Prints (2 volumes in slipcase). Vol. 10-11, Genève: Collections Baur.
- Forrer, Matthi (1997). Hiroshige, Prints and Drawings. London: Royal Academy of Arts and Prestel Verlag.
- Shiraishi, Tsutomu (1988). Hiroshige Tōkaidō gojūsantsugi. Keio gijuku Takahashi Seiichirō ukiyo-e korekushon. Tokyo: Shogakukan.
- Uhlenbeck, Chris, and Jansen, Marije (2008). Hiroshige, Shaping the Image of Japan. Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
Provenance: Seller Ikomanoshufu on Buyee