Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) (1786-1865) (and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Two elegant ladies dressed in magnificent kimonos gazing through a telescope at the spring landscape near Arashiyama.
Title: E-awase – Sagano fûkei (The picture contest – View of Saga)
Series: Fûryû Genji (An Elegant Genji)
Signature: Toyokuni ga
Block cutter: Yokogawa Takejirô
Publisher: Iseya Kanekichi, Edo
Date: 4/1853
Size: Oban diptych, 36 x 47,5 cms
Excellent impression with beautiful colours. Both sheets partly trimmed. Some thinning of paper, upper side of the left sheet with a small restored paper loss. Some minor discolorations and rubbings in margins. Overall still in very good condition.
These two sheets are the left and the middle part of a very rare triptych, which unfortunately was torn apart very often. The landscape was designed by Hiroshige, his signature however can be found only on the missing right sheet, which is often displayed separately, as can be seen in the collection of the MFA Boston or at the Honolulu Museum of Art.
There are many colour variations, especially of the left part of the triptych. The complete triptych in MFA Boston, Bigelow Coll. No. 11.15184, 11.17146, 11.17153. Literature and image: Marks, Genji’s World in Japanese Woodblock Prints, Leiden 2012, p. 252, No. 270
Rare depiction of a telescope which was a scarce and expensive device in the Edo period.
€ 950,-