Kunisada: Sitting Beauty
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Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786-1865) - after Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

An elegant beauty squatted in front of a water basin, set against a backdrop of the famous teahouse in Mariko

Title: Mariko no zu (A view of Mariko) (21th station)

Series: Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi (The Fifty-three Stations along the Tokaido)

Signature: Kôchôrô Kunisada ga

Publisher: Sanoya Kihei (Kikakudô)

Censor-Seal: Kiwame

Date: c. 1833 ff

Size: Vertical Chûban, 25 x 18 cm

Very good impression, colours and condition; retains old album backing. At the right margin small discoloured area and a light stain.

For the landscape backgrounds of this beautiful bijin series Kunisada mostly adapted scenes from Hiroshige's horizontal "Hôeidô-Tôkaidô“ (not yet completed at the time). Further information on the series in: Andreas Marks, Kunisada’s Tôkaidô. Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints. Leiden, 2013, p. 62 ff.

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