Hiroshige: Cherry blossom at the Sumidagawa
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Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

People enjoying the cherry blossom on the riverside path along the Sumidagawa. Below the embankment the torii at the entrance to the Mimeguri shrine, on the other side of the river Matsuchiyama hill and temple. An unusually symmetrical composition.

Title: Mimeguri tsutsumi Matsuchiyama enbô (A view of Matsuchiyama from the dam in Mimeguri)

Series: Tôto meisho (Famous places in the eastern capital, i.e. Edo)

Signature: Hiroshige ga

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi (Eikyûdô), Edo

Censor: Tanaka

Date: 1844/45

Original Japanese colour woodblock print. Size: Horizontal Ôban, 24.7 x 37.2 cm (overall)

Very nice impression and colours. Unbacked, full margins. A few tiny spots, a little bit soiled and creased, mainly at margins. Overall nice condition.

A rare print from a seldom seen series of (according to Tamba) 13 views of Edo, the title cartouche being in the shape of a weathered wooden kanban signboard.

Ill. in Tamba Tsuneo, The Art of Hiroshige, Tokyo 1965, p. 97, no. 219. Cf. also Honolulu Museum of Art, Michener Coll., no. 24433; MFA Boston, Spaulding Coll. 21.9845;Chazen Museum of Art, Van Vleck Coll., no. 1980.1776; Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. JP630; Edo-Tokyo Museum, no. 09200010

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