Meiji prints
| Design: | Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908) | |||||
| Print title and number: | 7 - Autumn - On a look out for a new season dress at Mitsui-Gofukuten | |||||
| Album/series title: | Mitsui Gonomi Miyako no Nishiki (Brocades of the capital. The seasons and their fashions.) | |||||
| Size: | 20.9 x 30.3 cm (ōban) | |||||
| Original woodblock print | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Special effects: silver metallic pigments on the obi and fan of the standing lady on the right, on the hair ornament and the kimono of the sitting girl, and on the ornaments of the wallpaper covering the left wall of the room.
Artist’s name in lower right of the print:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 年 | toshi | year | |
| 方 | kata | person | Toshikata |
Followed by red 賞 (shō, award) and 雪 (setsu, snow) seals.
Series title in purple cartouche in right margin:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 三 | mitsu | three | |
| 井 | i | a well | |
| 好 | kono(mu) | like | |
| 都 | miyako | capital | |
| の | no | ’s | |
| に | ni | ||
| し | shi | Mitsui Gonomi - | |
| き | ki | brocade | Brocades of the capital |
Publisher’s address and name in lower left margin:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 東 | tō | east | |
| 京 | kyō | capital | |
| 市 | shi | city | Tokyo city, |
| 日 | ni | sun | |
| 本 | hon | origin | |
| 橋 | hashi | bridge | |
| 区 | ku | district | Nihonbashi district, |
| 室 | muro | greenhouse | |
| 町 | machi | quarter | Muro quarter, |
| 三 | san | three | |
| 丁 | chō | house block | |
| 目 | me | count suffix | 3rd house block, |
| 九 | kyū | nine | |
| 番 | ban | number | |
| 地 | chi | earth, land | number 9, |
| 秋 | aki | autumn | |
| 山 | yama | mountain | Akiyama |
| 武 | bu | military | |
| 右 | u | right | |
| エ | ku | artisan | |
| 門 | mon | gate | Buemon |
Followed by red 滑稽堂 (Kokkeidō) publisher and 印刷山田 (insatsu Yamada, printing: Yamada) printer seals.
English series and print title in red in bottom margin reading: The seasons and their fashions. 7 - Autumn - ‘On a look out for a new season dress at Mitsui-Gofukuten’.
Followed by the text: Specially printed on the original designs by Mitsui.
References
- Narazaki, Muneshige, ed. (1990). Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western collections. The Robert O. Muller Collection. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
- Ōta Memorial Museum of Art (1993). Meiji Taishō bijin hangaten. (A woodblock print exhibition of Meiji-Taishō beauties.) Tokyo: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art.
- Stephens, Amy Reigle (1993). The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection. London: Bamboo Publishing.
Provenance: White Fox Rare Books