Hiroshige: Taira no Kiyomori
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Hiroshige: Taira no Kiyomori
Move your mouse over image or click to enlarge
Hiroshige: Taira no Kiyomori
Move your mouse over image or click to enlarge
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Old Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), head of the Taira clan, powerful general and de facto ruler of Japan, staring grimly into the snowy garden of his palace, from which the rocks, trees and lanterns appear transformed into the countless skulls and skeletons of the members of the Minamoto clan he has defeated and killed. On the veranda, his concubine Gyo is shying back in fear.
Title: Taira Kiyomori kaii o miru zu (Taira no Kiyomori haunted by strange sights)
Signature: Ichiryûsai Hiroshige ga (right), Hiroshige ga (left).
Seal: Hiro (diamond seal)
Publisher: no seal
Censor: Watari
Date: Edo, c. 1845
Size: Ôban triptych, overall c. 36,5 x 74 cm (sheets)
Very good impression with fresh colours. The sheets unbacked and not joined. Left sheet a little trimmed at left margin, centre sheet only a little trimmed at lower margin. A little bit rubbed and soiled in places, a few thinner spots and tiny holes, a vertical fold in the left sheet smoothed and restored, a smoothed crease at the right margin of the centre leaf. Overall still very good condition. From a little later edition, the publisher's seal of Ibaya Kyûbei (Kinseidô) in the left and right sheet is no longer present, in the centre sheet some changes to one block have occured, e.g. at the shadows and clouds, and a pattern in Kiyomori's scarf has been added.
A very sought-after and rare masterpiece by the artist - one of the very few and at the same time the best warrior print by Hiroshige. According to Izzard, Kiyomori bears the features of the famous actor Nakamura Utaemon IV, who staged as Kiyomori in 1845.
Ill.: Tamba Tsuneo, The Art of Hiroshige, Tokyo 1965, p. 169, no. 147, and p. 15; Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum - Ukiyo-e Prints, Tokyo 1974, vol. 3, no. 3187/88/89; Izzard, Hiroshige, 1983, p. 68, fig. 55 (centre sheet as here); Schlombs, Hiroshige, Cologne 2007, pp. 74/75.
Cf. also MFA Boston, 11.26797-9 and 21.5920 (left sheet only); MET JP2540a-c and JP217; Chazen 2002.73a-c; Honolulu 28196 (centre sheet only); Waseda 401-0379/80/81; British Museum 1907,0531,0.603.1-3 and OA+,0.42.1-3; V&A E.3390 :1-1886; Ashmolean EAX.4846 (similar impression, with publisher's seal); LACMA M.2006.136.276a-c (also no publisher's seal, missing the clouds); Lyon Collection 1527 (similar impression).
€ 6.800,- reserved