Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880) and Utagawa Hiroshige II (Shigenobu, 1826-1869)
Prince Genji standing between two beautiful ladies, one of them holding a sword. An ornate tsuitate screen with a painting of a blossoming old plum tree is in the foreground. In the folding fan picture at the top a waterside scene with grasses and wooden poles is shown. The whole picture is framed by a pattern with the Genji-kô symbol for the fourteenth chapter of the Genji novel.
Title: Chapter 14 - Tamakatsura
Series: Omokage Genji gojûyo-jô (Vestiges of the Fifty-four Chapters of Genji)
Signatures and seals: Baichôrô Kunisada hitsu with Toshidama seal; Ryûsai with seal (Hiroshige ?)
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizô (Tsutakichi, Kôeidô), Edo
Date: 1864, 1st month
Size: Vertical Ôban, 37,3 x 25,3 cm (overall)
Very nice impression, excellent colours, with lustre printing. The uncoloured background is karazuri-embossed with a continuous pattern of undulating sea waves. Unbacked, full sheet. Slightly creased, the light background a with some brighter spots and a faint brownish stain. A small wormhole in the upper unprinted margin. Overall very good condition.
For this Genji series see Andreas Marks, Genji's World in Japanese Woodblock Prints. Leiden 2012, p. 232 and p. 279, no. G 554. Cf. also MFA Boston 11.15553 and 11.37391.14, with a transcription of the waka poem in the fan.
€ 195,- reserved