Edo prints
| Design: | Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) | |||||
| Title: | Above and below Ryōgoku bridge | |||||
| Size: | 38.3 x 25.2 cm (ōban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally released ca. 1795-6 by publisher Ōmiya Gonkurō, this version was published around the 1920s by publisher and designer Hashiguchi Goyō (1880-1921) from newly carved woodblocks.
Three ladies are seen aboard a yakebune (i.e., roofed pleasure boat), the one standing in the middle apparently looking out for another boat, the one on the right holding up her empty sake cup for a refill. The scenery unfolds with a downstream view of Sumida river showing the boat sheds of the shōgun on the left (i.e., east bank) of the river.
This is the fifth print in a spectacular hexaptych of woodblock prints. A simultaneous view of the prints in this hexaptych can be seen here.
Artist’s signature at the bottom of the large grey pillar of Ryōgoku bridge on the right:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 歌 | uta | poem | |
| 麿 | maro | you | Drawn by |
| 筆 | hitsu | writing brush | Utamaro |
Black Iwa seal as well as rectangular seal 23-068 of the original publisher Ōmiya Gonkurō containing his name and address (Hon Ōmiya Asakusa Kayamachi) on the yellow hull of the yakebune. See Marks (2011, p.69).
Red rectangular Goyo publisher seal in left margin of the print.
References
- Asano, Shūgō, and Clark, Timothy (1995). The passionate art of Kitagawa Utamaro (2 volumes in slipcase). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.
- Collia-Suzuki, Gina (2009). The Complete Woodblock Prints of Kitagawa Utamaro. A Descriptive Catalogue. Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom: Nezu Press.
- Kobayashi, Tadashi (1993). Utamaro. Portraits from the Floating World. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
- Marks, Andreas (2011). Publishers of Japanese Woodblock Prints: A Compendium. Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
Provenance: Chris Uhlenbeck’s Hotei Japanese Prints