Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Merry groups of people strolling and picnicking under pines and blossoming cherry trees on Gotenyama hill, overlooking Edo bay, with numerous merchant ships anchoring.
Title: Gotenyama hanami no zu (Cherry blossom viewing at Mt. Goten)
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, 24.5 x 36,.2 cm (overall).
Very nice impression and colours. Unbacked, wide margins, only a tiny bit trimmed at right side. Smoothed vertical centrefold, small paper damage in upper and lower margin at the fold expertly restored. Minimal soiling. 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 kanban, a weathered wooden signboard.
Cf. Honolulu Museum of Art, Michener Coll., No. 24427; MFA Boston, Spaulding Coll. 21.9852 (red title cartouche). For the series cf. Tamba Tsuneo, The Art of Hiroshige, Tokyo 1965, comments on nos. 37, 217, 218.
sold