Artist: Tsukioka (Taiso) Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年 / 大蘇芳年, 1839–1892) — the last great master of ukiyo-e Series: Tōkyō Kaika Kyōga Meisho (東京開化狂画名所) — "Comic Pictures of Famous Places amid the Civilization of Tokyo" Designs (two, uncut): · Upper: Shinagawa Girō Kyakujin no Torichigai (品川妓楼 客人のとりちがひ), "A guest mixes up the rooms at a Shinagawa brothel" · Lower: Shiba Takanawa Sobaya no Sosō (芝高輪 そばやの粗相), "The noodle seller's blunder at Takanawa, Shiba" Technique: Woodblock print (ukiyo-e), colour (nishiki-e) Date: Japan, Meiji 14 (1881) — the marginal imprint is dated 6 January 1881 Format: Ōban sheet, 36 × 24.5 cm (14.6 × 9.6 in), holding two chūban designs uncut as issued Signature: Both designs signed by the artist — the upper as Yoshitoshi gihitsu (芳年戯筆, "drawn for fun by Yoshitoshi"), the lower in cursive ---------------------------------------------------------------- Condition Excellent colour and impression; the paper is firm and sound, with minor trimming outside the image area. Both designs complete and uncut. Light toning and soiling. A strong sheet! ------------------------------------------------------- About the print Yoshitoshi published this comic series in 1881. It is a set of twenty small designs that make fun of everyday life in fast-modernising Meiji Tokyo. Each scene is set at a named place in the city. The designs were printed two to a sheet and normally cut apart, so a sheet like this one, still uncut and with the left margin carrying the censorship date, the artist's registered name (Tsukioka Yonejirō) and the publisher's address, keeps the form in which it was issued. Upper: the wrong room at Shinagawa. Shinagawa was the first post-station on the Tōkaidō leaving the city, and its inns and brothels made it one of Tokyo's best-known pleasure districts. The joke is in the title: a guest has entered the wrong room and gone crashing over the folding screen set around a bed, to the shock of the people already there. Lower: the noodle seller at Takanawa. Takanawa lay on the shore of Tokyo Bay in the Shiba district, on the main road into the city. Here a careless noodle seller drops his tray, tipping a bowl of noodles over a customer's head and spilling the rest across the street. A policeman holding up a lantern shouts at the noise. The uniformed policeman is itself a sign of the new Meiji order, which Yoshitoshi liked to put into these scenes.