Ukiyoe Reproductions - landscapes

Home | landscapes | Previous Picture | Next Picture |

Ando Hiroshige IZUMO GRAND SHRINE IN MIST MORNING Price A$120 (unframed)) Status Secondhand reproduction Condition Excellent Size 270mm x 405mm Availability For sale

Late in autumn of 1972, a complete collection of "Picture-Album of Famous Places of More than 60 Provinces" possessed by the Riccar Art Museum, was exhibited at these museum. I took this opportunity to carefully look at each print. Until that moment, I had not taken notice of these prints. In comparing them, I was amazed at the fact that they were different in printing in various ways. Among some series of Hiroshige's Tokaido Highway, there are prints with different designs of certain stations which cause us difficulty in studying them. However, there is not a big difference in prints of "Picture-Album of Famous Places of More than 60 Provinces." The characteristic is that various trials made in printing stages, are noticed. In a bad sense, an Ukiyo-e print is a picture of color-block-arrangement. Therefore, printing technique might affect artistic effect. There is a need to carefully study them by collecting existing prints. Mr. Keyes of Honolulu and Mr. Morse of San Francisco recently made public an essay under joint authorship about the result of their study on "Shokoku-Taki-Meguri by Hokusai" or "Tour to Falls of Various Provinces by Hokusai." In this essay, it is pointed out that prints of the second impression made in the Meiji Era, are mixed among them, although we carelessly view them. There is a fear of a serious problem appearing in the future, unless we study them now. Anyway, in this print "Picture of Izumo Grand Shrine," three trees in the foreground and three women snuggling against each other are painted in solid lines and a torii(a gate of a Shito Shrine,) people and conifers in the background are depicted with dotted lines as in silhouette. And this shows a composition with a perspective represented by the depth of mist in the air. This is the technique Hiroshige loved, to express an "airy" feeling by preference. Also, this measure is to the point in depicting natural features of Japan. Nevertheless, a printer must pay close attention to his work. Otherwise, the tone of a picture might be ruined. Notwithstanding that a printer holds an important position in completing "Ukiyo-e" prints, it is regrettable that his skill has not been very much praised.

Muneshige Narazaki Note attached to print