ふさたね – 源氏と鶴 – 「鳥」源氏花鳥風月(1867)から – 左側と中央の紙 - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)





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Two vertical ōban woodblock prints from the Genji Kachō Fūgetsu no Uchi series, 'Bird', by Utagawa Fusatane (active c.1854–1889), dating to Keiō 3 (1867), left and centre sheets; each approx. 24 × 36 cm, in original/official state with provenance from a private collection and a fair impression with minor wear.
Description from the seller
Artist: Utagawa (Ōsai) Fusatane 歌川房種 (active c. 1854–1889), pupil of Utagawa Sadafusa
Series: Genji Kachō Fūgetsu no Uchi (源氏花鳥風月之内), "Genji: Flowers, Birds, Wind and Moon"
Title: Tori (鳥), "Bird", known in the West as "Prince Genji and the Crane"
Format: 二枚竪長方形のōban 尺法の2枚組(左・中央)からなる連作の一部; 右頁は含まれない。 約 [24 × 36 cm] 各
Technique: 木版画(錦絵)、紙に彩色
Date: Keiō 3 (1867)
Publisher: Tsujiokaya Bunsuke (辻文), Yokoyama-chō 3-chōme
Signature: Fusatane ga (房種画), 各頁に所蔵
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CONDITION
Fair impression with colors being shifted warm with fair saturation. The paper thin centre fold and minor wear to margins. Minor loss in the centre of each sheet. Please check the images carefully!
________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE PRINT
This is one of the best-known designs by Fusatane, a late-Edo pupil of Sadafusa who worked in landscape, beauty and historical prints. Artelino describes the full triptych as one of the designs collectors value most in his work. The series takes its title from kachō fūgetsu, "flowers, birds, wind and moon", the classic Japanese phrase for the beauties of nature. Each design gives one of the four themes to a scene of "Genji" court life. This sheet is the "Bird" design. In the complete triptych, Prince Genji releases a crane on the seashore. In Japan the crane stands for good fortune and long life.
The "Genji" of late-Edo prints is not Murasaki Shikibu's hero himself. It is the courtly world made popular by Ryūtei Tanehiko's best-selling novel Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji ("A Fake Murasaki and a Rustic Genji"). The novel reset the Tale of Genji in the Muromachi period. Through the 1850s and 1860s it inspired a steady flow of elegant Genji-e prints, and this series is a late example published just before the Meiji Restoration.
Seller's Story
Artist: Utagawa (Ōsai) Fusatane 歌川房種 (active c. 1854–1889), pupil of Utagawa Sadafusa
Series: Genji Kachō Fūgetsu no Uchi (源氏花鳥風月之内), "Genji: Flowers, Birds, Wind and Moon"
Title: Tori (鳥), "Bird", known in the West as "Prince Genji and the Crane"
Format: 二枚竪長方形のōban 尺法の2枚組(左・中央)からなる連作の一部; 右頁は含まれない。 約 [24 × 36 cm] 各
Technique: 木版画(錦絵)、紙に彩色
Date: Keiō 3 (1867)
Publisher: Tsujiokaya Bunsuke (辻文), Yokoyama-chō 3-chōme
Signature: Fusatane ga (房種画), 各頁に所蔵
________________________________________________________
CONDITION
Fair impression with colors being shifted warm with fair saturation. The paper thin centre fold and minor wear to margins. Minor loss in the centre of each sheet. Please check the images carefully!
________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE PRINT
This is one of the best-known designs by Fusatane, a late-Edo pupil of Sadafusa who worked in landscape, beauty and historical prints. Artelino describes the full triptych as one of the designs collectors value most in his work. The series takes its title from kachō fūgetsu, "flowers, birds, wind and moon", the classic Japanese phrase for the beauties of nature. Each design gives one of the four themes to a scene of "Genji" court life. This sheet is the "Bird" design. In the complete triptych, Prince Genji releases a crane on the seashore. In Japan the crane stands for good fortune and long life.
The "Genji" of late-Edo prints is not Murasaki Shikibu's hero himself. It is the courtly world made popular by Ryūtei Tanehiko's best-selling novel Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji ("A Fake Murasaki and a Rustic Genji"). The novel reset the Tale of Genji in the Muromachi period. Through the 1850s and 1860s it inspired a steady flow of elegant Genji-e prints, and this series is a late example published just before the Meiji Restoration.

