Japanese Woodblock Prints
Japanese Woodblock Prints
The Property of a Gentleman
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) | Bingo Province: Abuto, Kannon Temple (Bingo, Abuto, Kannondo) | Edo period, 19th century
Lot Closed
March 23, 02:36 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Gentleman
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Bingo Province: Abuto, Kannon Temple (Bingo, Abuto, Kannondo)
Edo period, 19th century
woodblock print, from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue), signed Hiroshige hitsu (Brush of Hiroshige), censor’s seal aratame (certified), published by Koshimuraya Heisuke, 12th month 1853
Vertical oban: 36 x 24 cm., 14⅛ x 9½ in.
Viewed from a considerable distance, a brood of pines appear to clamber atop the towering rocky cape of Abuto in Bungo Province. The temple stands on thin stilts, seemingly frail on their mountainous foundation. The pale outline of a full moon is veiled by the canopy of trees and a gauze of dark cloud. Depth is lent to the imposing rockwork through areas of bokashi gradation to the rocks in the foreground and a high contrast of light and dark in their colouration. Located along the shore of the Inland sea, the Buddhist temple was dedicated to the worship of the deity of compassion, Kannon Bodhisattva.
It is thought that Hiroshige based this design on an earlier illustration by Fuchigami Kyokko (d. 1833) in the album Remarkable Landscape Views (Sansui kikan, 4 vols., 1800). This is the second state with the omission of the clouds towards the top of the sky. The economisation of the design is further noted in the simplification of the rockwork into two basic tints of brown.1
For a similar impression of the same print in the collection of the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, accession number 1984.677, go to:
http://embarkkiosk.chazen.wisc.edu/objects-1/info/7059
1. Matthew Forrer, Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings (London, 1997), no. 62.