Hiroshige, Utagawa

Description:

Japan (1797 - 1858)
36 x 24,5 cm
Ōban Tate-e, woodblock print, ink and colour on paper. Hara, No 14 from the series: The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Signed: Hiroshige fude. Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō. Censor seal: Aratame. Date: circa 1845. The story follows the legendary life of Princess Kaguya, who as an infant was discovered in a bamboo stalk by a bamboo cutter. Believed to have descended from the moon, she matured into a lady of great beauty and refinement. Word of her beauty spread quickly and five courtly princes, as well as the emperor himself, visited her home to request her hand in marriage. She rebuffed all advances and returned to her home on the moon, leaving behind a letter and elixir of life for the emperor. In his grief, the emperor ordered that the letter and elixir be thrown into the burning mouth of Mt. Fuji. In Hiroshige’s depiction, the “old bamboo cutter” stands guard at the gate, surrounded by snow-covered bamboo, with his daughter Princess Kaguya sequestered in the house near a table of printed books. The text in the title cartouche states that of the fifty-three stations, Hara is the best for viewing Mt. Fuji. It also includes a description of Princess Kaguya that likens her beauty to the purity of snow.
From a private Berlin collection, assembled from the 1980s through the early 2000s - The Fifty-three Pairs for the Tokaido Road - Around 1845, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, and Toyokuni III (Kunisada) contributed designs to a Tokaido series titled "The Fifty-three Pairs (or Parallels) for the Tokaido Road." The series featured images of historical figures, legends, and ghost stories associated with the different stations along this famous route. The series title appears in a black cartouche at upper right, with a narrative in an inset at left, and a scene illustrating the story below. An interesting take on the classic Tokaido series, these prints feature lively and animated designs of warriors and beauties or ghosts and spirits, instead of typical travelers, bringing the highway to life - Partly traces of age, minor wear, slightl stained, partly creased, framed and glazed - Framed and glazed