Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III, 1786-1865)
Young beauty and little girl. The child is holding a movable toy doll in the shape of a Yarimochi Yakko, a spear-carrying samurai servant. The landscape scene by Hiroshige shows a view from under Nihonbashi bridge to Ryôgoku bridge and Mt. Fuji in the distance. The opening image of this lovely Tôkaidô series by the two foremost Ukiyo-e artists of the time.
Title: Nihonbashi
Series: Sôhitsu gojûsan tsugi (The fifty-three Stations by Two Brushes)
Signatures: Hiroshige hitsu with diamond seal Hiro (scenery), Toyokuni ga (figures)
Block cutter: Hori Take (Yokogawa Takejirô)
Publisher: Maruya Kyûshirô (Marukyû)
Date: 1854, 7th month.
Size: Vertical Oban, 38 x 25,4 cm (overall)
Very nice impression and colours. Untrimmed and unbacked. Margins a little soiled and rubbed, one very short tear bottom margin, some small stains (partly due to printing), a very small restored paper defect in the water area. Overall very nice condition.
Marks, Kunisada’s Tôkaidô, Leiden 2013, pp. 194-201 (No. T79-01). Cf. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam No. RP-P-OB-JAP-12; MFA Boston 11.36763.4 a.o.
sold