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Edo prints

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	Design:	Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
	Title:	Shiki no hana jō
	Size:	30.2 x 21.2 cm
	Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Originally released in 1801 by publisher Izumiya Ichibei (和泉屋市兵衛). This version was released in 1916 by publisher Yoshikawa Kōbunkan (吉川弘文館) from new woodblocks carved by Ōtsuka Yūji (大塚裕次).

Title printed in black on a white slip on the book cover:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
四	shi	four
季	ki	seasons
の	no	’s	Flowers of the
花	hana	flowers	four seasons
上	jō	top	First book

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This first book covers the seasons of spring and summer. The full contents of this 1916 reproduction of the first volume of Utamaro’s Shiki no hana illustrated books can be viewed on the website of the Pulverer Collection dedicated to Japanese illustrated books produced in the Edo period and beyond here and on David Bull’s Mokuhankan website here.

The topics of the prints depicted in this first volume are:

1. Kerria (yamabuki)
2. New Year manzai performance at the mansion of a feudal lord
3. New Year games of shuttlecock and battledore and ball-games
4. Gathering spring herbs
5. Embarking in summer boats in summer
6. Enjoying fireworks
7. Crossing a bridge in summer
8. Women inside a mosquito-net during a thunderstorm
9. Iris

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References

• Asano, Shūgō, and Clark, Timothy (1995). The passionate art of Kitagawa Utamaro (2 volumes in slipcase). Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun.

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Provenance: Utagawa123