UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797 – 1858), BAY AT KOMINATO Japan, c. 1850s

Woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Vertical Oban. Signed Hiroshige ga and published by Koshishei. Entitled Awa, Kominato no ura (Kominato Bay, Awa Province), from the series Rokujuyoshu meisho zue (Pictures of famous places in the sixty-odd provinces). Framed (no glass).

SIZE of the sheet 24.5 x 36 cm, framed 37.5 x 50 cm

Condition: overall fine condition - colors slightly faded, very minor material loss along the margin. Mounted at the upper margin to a passepartout, old and used frame.
Provenance: German private collection.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858)
Utagawa Hiroshige (also referred to as Ando Hiroshige) is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, having created 8,000 prints of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. Much of Hiroshige’s work focuses on landscape. Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige took a softer, less formal approach with his Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833–34), completed after traveling that coastal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Hiroshige’s prolific output was somewhat due to his being paid very little per series. Still, this did not deter him, as he receded to Buddhist monkhood in 1856 to complete his brilliant and lasting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–58). He died in 1858, 10 years before Monet, Van Gogh, and a lot of Impressionist painters became eager collectors of Japanese art.

Auction comparison:
Compare with another edition of this print sold at Christie’s New York, An Important Collection of Japanese Prints, 25 March 2003, lot 220 (sold for 5,975 USD).