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Meiji prints

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	Design:	Yamamoto Shōun (1870-1965)
	Print title:	Please eat
	Album/series title:	Shiki no Nagame (Scenes of the four seasons)
	Size:	20.5 x 30.2 cm (ōban)
	Original woodblock print
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Special effects: embossing (kara-zuri) on the child’s apron, on the distant clouds, and on the snow covering Mount Fuji.

Published in 1906 by Matsuki Heikichi.

This print has a vertical fold in the middle as it is part of an orihon (i.e., folding album).

Artist’s signature in the lower left corner of the print:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
昇	shō	rise
雲	un	cloud	Shōun

Series title in right margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
四	shi	four
季	ki	seasons
能	no	’s
な	na
可	ga		Scenes of the
免	me	scenes	four seasons

Followed by print title:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
お	o
あ	a
が	ga
り	ri		Please eat

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References

• Abe, Setsuko. Yamamoto Shōun. Prints of beautiful women of new customs and manners. Andon 41, 1992, pp. 19-21.

• Harris, Frederick. Yamamoto Shōun (1870-1965). Andon 66, 2000, pp. 28-36.

• 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.

• Merritt, Helen, and Yamada, Nanako (1992). Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900 - 1975. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

• Narazaki, Muneshige, ed. (1990). Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western collections. The Robert O. Muller Collection. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

• Newland, Amy Reigle (2021). Printed and painted. The Meiji art of Ogata Gekkō (1859-1920). Leiden: Hotei Publishing.

• Ōta Memorial Museum of Art (2006). Yamamoto Shōun. Special Exhibition Collection of the Museum of Art, Kochi. Tokyo: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art.

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Provenance: Art Shop Ezoshi in Kyoto, with many thanks to Chris Uhlenbeck of Hotei Japanese Prints for finding this album for me during his autumn 2025 visit to Japan