Asakusa Kinryūzan — Sensō-ji in Cherry Blossom Season · 48 FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO · HIROSHIGE II - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)






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Original Edo-period woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige II of Asakusa Kinryūzan — Sensō-ji in Cherry Blossom Season, from the Forty-eight Famous Views of Edo, published by Tsutaya Kichizō in 1860–1861, chūban tate-e (25 × 17 cm), ink and colour on paper, with a strong impression and colours and minor toning/s soilings.
Description from the seller
Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代歌川広重 (1826–1869)
Title: Asakusa Kinryūzan 浅草金龍山 (No. 21)
Series: Edo meisho shijūhakkei 江戸名所四十八景 — Forty-eight Famous Views of Edo
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō 蔦屋吉蔵 (Tsutakichi seal, right margin)
Date: 1860–1861 (Man'en 1 / Bunkyū 1)
Format: Chūban tate-e, 25 × 17 cm
Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper
Signature: Hiroshige ga 廣重画, in a blue tanzaku cartouche at lower right
__________________________________________________________________
CONDITION
Strong impression and colors are well perserved with minor toning and some soiling, minor trimming on the margins. The paper is firm and subtle. Please check the images!
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE PRINT
Kinryūzan, "Golden Dragon Mountain", is the formal temple name of Sensō-ji in Asakusa, the oldest and most visited temple in Edo. According to its founding legend, in 628 two fishermen brothers pulled a small gilt image of the bodhisattva Kannon from the Sumida River in their nets, and the temple was built to house it. Under the Tokugawa shoguns Sensō-ji became a temple under official patronage, and the grounds around it grew into the liveliest pleasure quarter of the city, full of tea houses, stalls, street performers and, later, theatres.
mak
The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (MAK), which holds an impression of this sheet, describes it as showing the temple with cherry trees in bloom, the spring feature Asakusa was known for. The same museum notes that the series closely follows the choice of places in the first Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. In that earlier series the first Hiroshige had also titled his Asakusa sheet "Asakusa Kinryūzan" (1856), a design now among the most recognised views of Edo.
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE SERIES
Edo Meisho Shijūhakkei is a complete set of forty-eight chūban sheets, each pairing one of Edo's famous places with the seasonal feature it was known for; the publisher's seal and the censor's seal alternate from sheet to sheet, and two printing dates are documented — the twelfth month of Man'en 1 (1860) and the first month of Bunkyū 1 (1861). The publisher was Kōeidō, Tsutaya Kichizō.
Hiroshige II — born Suzuki Chinpei, pupil and adopted son-in-law of the first Hiroshige — inherited the name in 1858 and, with it, the obligation to keep the studio's famous-places line running. This set belongs to the very last years of Edo: within seven years of its publication the city had a new name and a new government, and the pleasure districts it records were about to change beyond recognition. The chūban format made them affordable souvenirs at the time, which is precisely why they now read as an unusually candid record of where townspeople actually went.
Seller's Story
Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代歌川広重 (1826–1869)
Title: Asakusa Kinryūzan 浅草金龍山 (No. 21)
Series: Edo meisho shijūhakkei 江戸名所四十八景 — Forty-eight Famous Views of Edo
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō 蔦屋吉蔵 (Tsutakichi seal, right margin)
Date: 1860–1861 (Man'en 1 / Bunkyū 1)
Format: Chūban tate-e, 25 × 17 cm
Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper
Signature: Hiroshige ga 廣重画, in a blue tanzaku cartouche at lower right
__________________________________________________________________
CONDITION
Strong impression and colors are well perserved with minor toning and some soiling, minor trimming on the margins. The paper is firm and subtle. Please check the images!
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE PRINT
Kinryūzan, "Golden Dragon Mountain", is the formal temple name of Sensō-ji in Asakusa, the oldest and most visited temple in Edo. According to its founding legend, in 628 two fishermen brothers pulled a small gilt image of the bodhisattva Kannon from the Sumida River in their nets, and the temple was built to house it. Under the Tokugawa shoguns Sensō-ji became a temple under official patronage, and the grounds around it grew into the liveliest pleasure quarter of the city, full of tea houses, stalls, street performers and, later, theatres.
mak
The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (MAK), which holds an impression of this sheet, describes it as showing the temple with cherry trees in bloom, the spring feature Asakusa was known for. The same museum notes that the series closely follows the choice of places in the first Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. In that earlier series the first Hiroshige had also titled his Asakusa sheet "Asakusa Kinryūzan" (1856), a design now among the most recognised views of Edo.
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE SERIES
Edo Meisho Shijūhakkei is a complete set of forty-eight chūban sheets, each pairing one of Edo's famous places with the seasonal feature it was known for; the publisher's seal and the censor's seal alternate from sheet to sheet, and two printing dates are documented — the twelfth month of Man'en 1 (1860) and the first month of Bunkyū 1 (1861). The publisher was Kōeidō, Tsutaya Kichizō.
Hiroshige II — born Suzuki Chinpei, pupil and adopted son-in-law of the first Hiroshige — inherited the name in 1858 and, with it, the obligation to keep the studio's famous-places line running. This set belongs to the very last years of Edo: within seven years of its publication the city had a new name and a new government, and the pleasure districts it records were about to change beyond recognition. The chūban format made them affordable souvenirs at the time, which is precisely why they now read as an unusually candid record of where townspeople actually went.
