Japanese woodblock, hiroshige woodblock print, japanese art print, mogami river good ukiyoe
Love Japanese Style Like We Do
japanese woodblock, hiroshige woodblock print, japanese art print, mogami river, ukiyoe
(listing for wood block print only)
A beautiful Hiroshige (1797-1858) landscape print from his series good of “Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces. ‘Dewa Province, Mogami River, A Perspective View of Mount Gassan depicts the Mogami River, crowded with fishermen and cargo ships. The thatched roofs of villages can be spotted nestled among the surrounding hills and in the distance Mount Gassan towers above the clouds. The fine detail and colors are really wonderful and the vertical format accentuates the beauty and depth of the scene.
The reprint was produced by well known and respected Tokyo publisher Oedo Mokuhansha when a resurgence of interest in ukiyo-e developed during the mid Showa Era. It is part of a rare, select publication of famous works by Hiroshige.
The woodblock is in it's original untrimmed state and is lightly tip mounted to a windowed folder. The folder is protected in another envelope pack. It is in very good condition. It looks great in a black frame, with a mat picking up and accentuating a color from the print.
- measures 40 cm (15.7”) x 27 cm (10.6”) including margins.
- weighs 180 gm.
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OEDO MOKUHANSHA
The Oedo Mokuhansha company was formed by descendants of an Edo era publisher and the woodblock print craft was passed down through generations. They produce nice prints of the highest quality standards and are a great choice if you are looking for fine old woodblock reprints.
WOODBLOCK REPRINTS
In the Showa era, as interest in Edo era woodblock prints was reigniting, many printing companies embarked upon a project to produce reprints by the great masters from the Golden Age of Ukiyo-e. They hired the finest woodblock artists. These beautiful woodblock reprints were done exactly as the originals. An artist carved a woodblock, one for each color, and hand printed each print, one color at a time. These old reprints are sought after for their meticulous attention to detail and color, rivaling the originals. Unlike the brighter, souvenir prints seen on the market nowadays, these fine reprints show the attention to detail and careful color choices intended to exactly replicate the old originals.
FAMOUS VIEWS OF THE SIXTY-ODD PROVINCES
‘Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces' was published between 1853 and 1856 by Koshihei. Hiroshige's fantastic ‘Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces' series features sixty-nine prints, one for each of the sixty-six provinces of Japan, plus Edo and the two major islands. The series includes some of Hiroshige's most famous designs.
The series shows a further development of Hiroshige's landscape print design, including some of his most modern compositions. The striking new use of a vertical format allowed Hiroshige to experiment with the foreground and background contrasts, drawing the viewer in, while at the same time implying a sense of great distance. The high vantage point of most of the designs allows for sweeping panoramas and expansive views of the beautiful countryside. Skillful bokashi shading also adds unusual depth to many of the images.
The series beautifully illustrates the Japanese countryside while capturing the flavor of life during the Edo era.
UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797 - 1858)
Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Edo period. His birth name was Andō Hiroshige and he grew up in a samurai family. His father was a member of the firefighting force at Edo Castle. It is believed that Hiroshige received his first tutoring in art from a colleague of his father's at Edo Castle.
In 1811, Hiroshige became an apprentice to the artist Toyohiro Utagawa and after a year he was given the name Utagawa. As a student, his work at that time included book illustrations and prints of young women and kabuki actors. Until about 1832 he studied painting and print design and was very interested in art from the Shijo School.
It is said Hiroshige's artistic brilliance was largely unnoticed until he produced a series of prints called "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido" from 1832-1833. This work captured the journey along the Tokaido road which connected Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto (the Imperial capital in Edo times). At that time, the Tokugawa Shogunate relaxed travel restrictions and many urban people were able to travel. Hiroshige's prints captivated their experiences and he became a prominent and very successful ukiyo-e artist. It is said that Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō" really highlighted Hiroshige's unique talent. This work is characterized by different renditions of perspective, seasonal themes, and beautifully striking colors.
Utagawa Hiroshige is celebrated as the last great master of Japanese ukiyo-e (woodblock printing). It is said that he captured the essence of a 'floating world'. The floating world is a term from which "ukiyo-e" was derived. Both Hiroshige and a contemporary artist called Hokusai were interested in portraying different types of weather and ways of composing their art. This common interest is said to have been of benefit to Hiroshige.
Hiroshige's delicate and lyrical landscapes influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists of Europe. Toulouse-Lautrec was intrigued by Hiroshige's diagonal compositions and creative use of perspective. And Vincent Van Gogh using oil paints copied two prints from Hiroshige's famous series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo."
Today, Hiroshige's works can be found all over the world. in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Tobacco and Salt Museum in Tokyo to mention a few.
Hiroshige was also a very successful "kacho-e" (bird-and-flower pictures) artist. He died in the Edo cholera epidemic in 1858, at the age of 61.