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Subject:Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: Chris Sat, Jun 04, 2022 IP: 2600:8801:fb00:a16:c

Hello again,

Here is a woodblock print I am looking to identify. Measures (approx) 28.6cm by 17cm. The middle photo seems to have been rotated when it was uploaded; I apologize for the sideways orientation.

Thank you one and all in advance for your time ad assistance!

Kind Regards,
Chris







Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: Stan Sun, Jun 05, 2022

Your print is by Hiroshige I and is the Minakuchi Station, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi), also known as the Kyôka Tôkaidô. See the link below for one at the Boston MFA.

As far as I can tell by comparing the two, yours is a later reproduction. One obvious clue that it is not an original is the small red cartouche in the upper right that is not present on an original print.

Cheers,
Stan

URL Title :Minakuchi


Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: Chris Mon, Jun 06, 2022

Thank you Stan for taking the time to post this - I am extremely appreciate of the time and effort all of you contribute to helping individuals such as myself.

Kind Regards,
Chris

Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: mp.kunst Sun, Jun 05, 2022

Artist is Hiroshige Utagawa

The playing children / exclaim in chorus: / four and five / and we will have reached / the last square (四つ五つ / ふればあがると / 子供等が / みな口々に / いひてあそべり).
The words of the kyoka (狂歌) poem by Baikodo Nerikata (梅香堂煉方), written in the upper part of the work, accompany this depiction of the Minakuchi station (水口宿) in which we see some very enterprising women, intent on dragging travellers into teahouses and inns for the night. The verses are a pun on the name of the aforementioned station, as well as on the succession of the post stations of Tokaido which are compared to the squares of an ideal game of the goose.


This precious woodblock print, made between 1840 and 1842 by the artist Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重), is the fifty-first panel of the “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road” (東海道五拾三次), a series also known as the “Kyoka Tokaido” (狂歌入東海道) due to the presence, precisely, of poetic compositions combined with the stations of the famous route that connected Edo (江戸) or today’s Tokyo (東京), the shogun’s capital, with the imperial capital Kyoto (京都).

Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: Chris Mon, Jun 06, 2022

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for taking the time to notably identify this at my request, but to provide the resplendent information you did. While familiar with Hiroshige, I had no idea this was one of this works from the 53 Stations suite - I have a framed vintage reproduction of the Shono: Driving Rain ukiyo-e but never suspected this could be another of his, let alone from this series.

Kind Regards,
Chris

Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: I.Nagy Sun, Jun 05, 2022

Title cartouche,
東海道五拾三次 - Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido
水口  - Minakuchi (Station)
其五十一  - No.51
Signature (Left),
廣重画   - Painted by Hiroshige

梅香堂 煉方 - Baikadō Nerikata
(Writer of the following kyōka poem)
(Alternative kanas are transcribed into their m odern forms)
四つ五つふれば あがると 
子供がみながみな口々に
いひてあそへり
Yotsu itsutsu fureba, agaru to
kodomo ga mina kuchi-guchi ihite asoberi
The playing children exclaim in chorus,
Four and five, and we will have reached the last square
(Refers to the station depicted, where we can see enterprising women, intent on luring travellers into teahouses for the night)

With regards,
I.Nagy

Subject:Re: Assistance requested identifying ukiyo-e
Posted By: Chris Mon, Jun 06, 2022

Dear I. Nagy,

Thank you once again for your assistance in transcribing the kanji on the ukiyo-e and in doing so furthering both my understanding of appreciation of both ukiyo-e at large and in particular, this example.

Kind Regards,
Chris


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