'View of Kanaya', After Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川廣重, Ukiyo-E Woodblock, Tokaido

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An ink on paper, Nishiki-e and Yoko-e woodblock landscape showing a view of travelers crossing the Ōi River at Kanaya, … Read more An ink on paper, Nishiki-e and Yoko-e woodblock landscape showing a view of travelers crossing the Ōi River at Kanaya, circa 1850. Signed in Kanji center right, "Hiroshige Ga" for Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858) and printed circa 1946 by Gihachiro Okuyama (1907-1981). An exceptionally crisp image with fresh color, printed on traditional Washi paper and showing delicate bokashi gradation of sumi ink in the foreground, horizon and upper sky. Sheet Dimensions: 10.25 H x 15.25 W inches.

The procession from a previous print emerges from the river, having completed its crossing. Porters lie down to rest after the river crossing, while a large crew of men struggle to move a particularly heavy palanquin (presumably containing a daimyo) across the home stretch. The Tōkaidō, flanked by houses in a village, appears to snake up a mountainside in the distance. Interestingly, much of the imagery for this print was borrowed from a guidebook called Tōkaidō Meisho Zue (Pictorial Guide to Famous Places on the Tōkaidō), released in 1797.

This example is from Okuyama's mid-century reissue of the artist's "Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido Road", a series of Ukiyo-e prints created between 1833 and 1855. These depicted various views of the most important five main trade roads connecting Kyoto to modern-day Tokyo during the Edo period (1603-1868). A comic poem or "kyoka" also appears, inscribed in elegant kuzushiji script.

The best-known student of Utagawa Toyohiro (ca.1773-1829), Utagawa Hiroshige studied the Western style introduced by the founder of the Utagawa school, Toyoharu (1735-1814). Together with Hokusai, Hiroshige is considered one of the two leading Japanese landscape painters of the nineteenth century and he became one of the foremost representatives of the Ukiyo-e movement. He created more than 400 woodcut and woodblock prints of actors, warriors, courtesans and, particularly, naturalistic landscapes of Japan. Hiroshige's work was highly regarded in his own time and also became influential in the development of European Modernist painting of the late nineteenth century, especially that of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists including Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

(For descriptions of the individual works, we are indebted to Nicholas Scaglione and Professor Ingrid Furniss of Lafayette College). [H25] See less