Meiji prints
| Design: | Kobayashi Kiyoshika (1847-1915) | |||||
| Title: | Sumida river at night | |||||
| Size: | 20.3 x 32.2 cm (aiban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally published in 1881 by publisher Fukuda Kumajirō (福田熊治良). This edition published ca. 1950s by publisher Maria Shobo (マリア書房).
Artist’s name in lower right of the print area:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 小 | ko | small | |
| 林 | hayashi | woods | |
| 清 | kiyo | purify | Kobayashi |
| 親 | shita | intimate | Kiyochika |
Print title (from right to left) in bottom margin:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 隅 | sumi | corner | |
| 田 | da | rice field | |
| 川 | gawa | river | Sumida river |
| 夜 | yoru | night | at night |
On this print Henry D. Smith (1988) comments: ‘ (This is) ... another view across the (Sumida) river to the west, with the foreground silhouettes of two figures: a man in Japanese dress and Western bowler, holding a cane in one hand and a small lantern in the other, followed by a woman - perhaps a maid from a nearby restaurant guiding him back to the ferry landing. On the distant shore we can make out the unmistakable contours of the entrance to the San’ya canal, with brightly lit restaurants to either side of Imado Bridge and the form of Matsuchi Hill rising to the left.’
For more information on Imado bridge, the San’ya canal, and Matsuchiyama hill, please visit my Ehon Sumidagawa website.
References
- Hokkaidō Obihiro Museum Of Art (1998). Meiji no ukiyo-e hanga (Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Meiji period). Hokkaidō: Hokkaidō Obihiro Museum Of Art and Hokkaidō Shinbun Press.
- Smith, Henry D. (1988). Kiyochika. Artist of Meiji Japan. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Provenance: Fuji Arts