Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重) aka Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重) (1797 –1858)

“Yui, Satta-mine Oya-shirazu” 由井薩多嶺親志らず (Yui: Satta Peak, [The Coast of] Oya-shirazu), number 17 from the series, “Tokaido Gojusan Tsugi Meisho Dzuye” (五十三次名所圖會) [The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido] aka Tate-e Tokaido [Vertically formatted], published by Tsutaya Kichizō (Kōeidō), 1855

Colour woodblock print on fine paper

Size: (sheet) 35.8 x 23.7 cm

Inscribed in upper-right blue cartouche: “由井 / 薩多嶺 / 親志らず” [Yui: Satta Peak, (The Coast of) Oya-shirazu]; upper-right red cartouche: “五十三次名所圖會　十七” [The Fifty-Three Stations: Illustrations of Famous Places, No. 17]; lower-left cartouche “廣重筆” [Brush by Hiroshige]; lower-left seal “改” [Seal of censorship]; marked with the publisher’s seal lower-left and dated [Year of the Cock, seventh month]. 

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “Colour woodblock oban print. Travellers ascending long slope along costal cliff; ships in bay; Mt Fuji in distance. Inscribed, signed, sealed and marked.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=784767&partId=1&searchText=hiroshige+no+17&page=1)

See the full set of this series at J. Noel Chiappa’s online catalogue raisonné of Hiroshige’s prints at http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/tokaido_tate-e/tokaido_tate-e.htm  

Condition: a variant coloured impression (compare with the copy at the British Museum, see url above) with a central vertical crease and other weak areas reinforced (verso). There are imperfections in the printing process.

I am selling this original woodblock print by the legendary Hiroshige for a total cost of AU$240 (currently US$172.44/EUR155.13/GBP117.93 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this rare Hiroshige featuring Mt Fuji, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This original impression by Hiroshige is a variant from the colours that he used in the first edition impression that may be seen at the British Museum. Most noticeable is the colour change from a yellow sky to the glowing red/pink one. Although the remainder of the colours in this print are much the same as those exhibited in the BM copy, the change in the colour of the sky makes a significant difference—at least to me—in how the image is seen. What I mean is perhaps best summed up by the old seaman adage: “Red sky at night, a sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, a sailor’s warning.” Essentially, for me, the red sky of this impression casts a foreboding spell over the scene.

Beyond this gloomy viewpoint, Timothy Clark in “100 Views of Mount Fuji” (London, BMP, 2001) offers the following interesting insights into this print: “Oya-shirazu (literally, 'forgetting a parent') is the name used to describe a treacherous coastline beaten by waves where there is not even time for 'a child to look back for a parent, or a parent to look back for a child'. Until the construction of the Satta Pass by the Shogunate in 1655, the route of the Tokaido had been along the rocky shoreline at low tide, here seen partially covered by the sea. … this composition … [takes] us up the long slope that leads to the high pass. The figures are of the stereotypical 'stick-leg' kind (it almost looks as if they are on stilts) of Hiroshige's later years. Compensatory interest is created by the use of unusual, even unnatural colours… . The line of the right slope of Mt Fuji has been deliberately fragmented to suggest that it is glimpsed through the trees.”