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Meiji prints

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	Design:	Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915)
	Print title:	February: A snowy twilight at Matsuchiyama hill
	Series title:	Views of the famous places in Tokyo
	Size:	35.1 x 23.5 cm (ōban)
	Original woodblock print
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Special effects: embossing (kara-zuri) on the snow; embossed fabric printing (nuno-me-zuri) on the pink and light beige cartouches.

Published in 1896 by Inoue Kichijirrō.

A simultaneous view of the prints in this triptych can be seen here.

This triptych offers a great view from Mokujima in Tokyo towards the west-bank of the Sumida river. In the background we see the west-bank of the Sumida river, with on the left Shōden shrine located on top of Matsuchiyama hill, and Imado bridge crossing the mouth of the San’yabori canal leading up to the famous Yoshiwara district. On both sides of this bridge many restaurants are located. More to the right Imadochō quarter is displayed. In the foreground we see the Takeya ferry making its crossing from Mimeguri Inari shrine in Mokujima to Imado bridge on the west-bank of the river.

This third part of the triptych also contains a singularly dwarfed paddle wheel steamboat providing service up and down the Sumida river.

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

Followed by red Kiyochika seal.

Series title in light beige cartouche^*):

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
東	tō	east
京	kyō	capital
名	mei	name
所	sho	place
新	shin	new
景	kei	view	Views of the
之	no	’s	famous places in Tokyo:
内	uchi	home
如	kisa	second
月	ragi	month	February

Print title in adjacent pink cartouche:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
待	matsu	wait
乳	chichi	breast
山	yama	hill
雪	yuki	snow
の	no	’s
黄	taso	yellow	A snowy twilight
昏	gare	dark	at Matsuchiyama

Followed by this haiku:

徳の香に
弾むや
雪の渡し船

which reads:

Tokunoka ni
hazuma ya
yuki no watashibune

and may be translated into:

The smell of virtue
urges it on:
Ferryboat in the snow

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On this print Henry D. Smith (1988) comments: ‘ Second month: Matsuchi Hill at Dusk under Snow ... is the finest of all Kiyochika’s triptychs of the years after the war with China. The composition reflects both the influence of traditional painting, with large areas of unprinted white, and Kiyochika’s own Western-influenced taste for the use of enlarged foreground objects. The object in this case is the Takeya ferry that crossed the Sumida river from Mimeguri shrine to Imado bridge at the entrance to San’ya Canal.’

For more information on Imado bridge, the San’ya canal, and Matsuchiyama hill, please also visit my Hokusai Ehon Sumidagawa website.

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References

• Smith, Henry D. (1988). Kiyochika. Artist of Meiji Japan. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

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Provenance: Collecting Japanese Prints (CJP)

^*) With many thanks to Naoko and Shinji Ōba for helping me with the translation of the text in this print.