Three color woodcuts on Japanese paper
Japan, 1830s to 1850s
Utagawa ‘Ando’ Hiroshige (1797-1858) – Japanese woodcut artist
Signature: Hiroshige ga
Publisher: Hôeidô, Tsutaya and Uoya Eikichi
Censor: kiwame or aratame
Format: oban
Dimensions: 25.7 x 38 cm, 36.4 x 24.6 cm and 36.2 x 24.2 cm
Good condition
Provenance: Private collection, Cologne
Fine collection of works by a master of the Japanese woodcut

This collection includes three color woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige. One sheet is from the ‘Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi’ (The 53 Stations of the T?kaid?) which portrays the different service stations along the national road from Edo to Kotyo. The present sheet shows station 50 and is named ‘Minakuchi meibutsu kanpyô’ (Women hanging strips of dried gourd). It was published by Hôeidô and bears the censor stamp ‘kiwame’. A further print – number 51 from the series and titled ‘Minakuchi Matsu-yama’ (Mount Matsu near Minakuchi) – is from the series ‘Gojûsan tsugi meisho zue’ (The fifty-three Famous Views of the Tokaido). It was published in 1855 by Tsutaya and bears the censor stamp ‘aratame’. The third sheet is named ‘Yushima Tenjin, sakaue chôbô‘ (Hilltop View from the Yushima Tenjin Shrine) from the series ‘Meisho Edo hakkei‘ (100 Famous Views of Edo). It was published in 1856 by Uoya Eikichi and bears the censor stamp ‘aratame’.



The sheets are in good condition with signs of age. The colors are fresh. The paper is slightly toned with small marginal blemishes and creases. Thin areas of margins are backed. The dimensions are 25.7 x 38 cm, 36.4 x 24.6 cm and 36.2 x 24.2 cm respectively.

Utawaga ‘And?’ Hiroshige (1797-1858)

In western countries Utagawa Hiroshige is also known as And? Hiroshige. And? was his real surname, but usually artists gave up their birth name and replaced it by a combination of the name of the school (in this case ‘Utagawa’) and the master’s name (in this case ‘Hiroshige‘). Utagawa Hiroshige is considered one of the three style-icons of Japanese woodcut art of his time. He created an entirely new composition of the landscape view, which creates a harmonious symbiosis between man and nature.

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