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Hiroshige – “Hara” – Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokai browse these categories for related items... All Items: Antiques:Regional Art:Asian:Japanese:Woodblock Prints: Pre 1837 VR: item # 970103 Please refer to our stock # ICHI 66-A2 when inquiring.
Ichiban Japanese & Oriental Antiques Post Office Box 395 Marion, CT 06444-0395 203.272.7392 Guest Book 1195.00 |
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This print of Mt. Fuji as seen from the Hara station of the “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” is one of the few vertical prints Hiroshige did in his series of Tokaido prints. In several of his Fuji prints he portrayed the monumental size of Mt. Fuji – and its importance to the Japanese as a sacred mountain – he had the top of the volcano extend up through the margin of the print. It is as if he did not feel such a landmark should be contained in a conventional confined frame. The snowcapped Fuji-San can been in the distance and is surrounded by foothills. Down on the road we see a number of people walking and riding horses as they approach a group of small houses or stalls. We surmise they could be stalls that sell food and drink to the travelers along the road. The print is framed and measures 20” by 15” in the frame – the image is 15” by 11”. It is in good condition with some small stains next to the foothills and on the road. It dates from the Edo period, circa 1850s and was published by Tsutaya. Utagawa Hiroshige , (1797 – October 12, 1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige ( (an irregular combination of family name and art name)[1] and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige The Japanese woodblock print artist, Hiroshige, created a considerable number of series of woodblock prints on the theme of the Tokaido highway. He was not the first artist to do so, but the fame of his first Tokaido series far eclipsed all the others. He went on to do a large number of other Tokaido series, but his first "Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido" (1833-1834), often called the "Hoeido Tokaido", after its publisher, to distinguish it from all the others) is still the most famous. Known as the 'Vertical' or 'Tate-e' Tokaido from the portrait (vertical) orientation of the prints. The series was published in 1855 by Tsutaya and were all in the Oban tate-e format. Ôban refers to the standard Japanese woodblock print size, about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters) and Tate-e means a print in vertical or ‘portrait’ format. Hiroshige produced this series after traveling down the Tokaido in 1832 (or possibly 1831, the details are uncertain) as part of an official mission from the Shogun to deliver a gift of horses to the Emperor. It was this series that brought him to immediate fame, from his prior relatively unknown status. This first "Fifty-Three Stations" is today unanimously considered one of the two best series he ever produced, and probably his best ever. |
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