Unsigned (school of Yōshū Chikanobu / Toyohara Chikanobu, attributed) Title: Shin Kōkyo Momiji no Zu 新皇居紅葉之図 — "View of Autumn Leaves at the New Imperial Palace" Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e) on Japanese washi paper — triptych (three ōban sheets) Date: 1888 (Meiji 21, 11th month) — published just months after the official completion of the new Imperial Palace Format: Ōban tate-e triptych (each sheet approx. 36 × 24 cm; combined approx. 36 × 72 cm) Reference impression: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York holds an impression of this exact composition (catalogued as "Autumn foliage at the New Imperial Palace, 1888, Meiji 21, 11th month, unidentified artist"). Impression: Very good — strong, confident linework throughout, with the elaborate architectural carving of the palace eaves, the dense maple foliage, and the fine textile patterns of the courtiers' robes all crisply preserved. Colour: Very good — the palette is fresh and beautifully balanced. The signature stunning orange and vermilion accents of the autumn maples (momiji) blaze across all three sheets, set against the soft turquoise and grey of the distant landscape and the deep red brocade ground of the palace dais. Subtle bokashi gradations in the sky and along the riverbed remain smoothly intact. Paper: Good — uniform light age-toning consistent with a print of nearly 140 years' age. Some minor scuffing and soiling overall. About the Print A historically significant Meiji documentary triptych marking one of the most consequential moments of nineteenth-century Japanese state-making: the completion of the new Imperial Palace (新皇居 Shin Kōkyo) in Tokyo, in October 1888. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Emperor Meiji had taken up residence at the former Edo Castle, but the original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1873. For fifteen years the Emperor lived in a temporary palace in Akasaka while a vast new complex was constructed on the old Nishinomaru grounds. Its formal completion in 1888 was celebrated as the symbolic culmination of Japan's emergence as a modern imperial state — and was commemorated in a remarkable group of woodblock triptychs published in the months that followed, of which this autumn-leaves design is among the most ambitious. The composition is built as a grand juxtaposition. On the left sheet, a sweeping classical landscape unfolds: gnarled pines and maple in full autumn colour cascade down a hillside, a waterfall plunges between mossy boulders, and far in the distance the unmistakable snow-capped silhouette of Mount Fuji rises above the haze. This is the timeless Japan of the meisho-e tradition — the eternal landscape of poetry, pilgrimage, and seasonal contemplation. On the centre and right sheets, a dramatic shift: the new Imperial Palace itself appears as a magnificent tile-roofed pavilion, its great curving eaves ornamented with chrysanthemum kiku-mon — the imperial crest — picked out in gold. The palace architecture deliberately fuses traditional Japanese forms (the soaring hip-and-gable roof, the painted screens) with the Western-influenced ceremonial spaces being introduced to the Meiji court. Beneath its eaves, behind sheer purple curtains hung with vermilion tassels, the imperial party is gathered: Emperor Meiji himself, in dark Western military dress with sash and medals, his moustache and goatee unmistakable; Empress Shōken, seated on a high-backed European chair, her elaborate Western coiffure crowned with a small tiara, holding a folded fan; courtiers in dark frock-coats; and on the right, ladies-in-waiting in resplendent traditional kimonos painted in turquoise, vermilion, and gold. This juxtaposition is the entire programme of Meiji ideology in a single image: the eternal landscape of Mount Fuji and autumn maple, the dynastic continuity symbolised by the chrysanthemum crest, and the cosmopolitan modernity of an emperor and empress now received in Western dress on European furniture, surrounded by a court that combined the costumes of two civilisations. The autumn maples (momiji) are not merely seasonal decoration: in the courtly poetic tradition stretching back to Heian times, momiji-gari — autumn-leaf viewing — was one of the most refined of imperial pastimes, and its presence here links the modern Meiji court to nearly a millennium of imperial precedent. The compositional ambition, the lavish use of orange and vermilion against the deep turquoise sky, the architectural detail of the palace eaves, and the careful portraiture of the imperial figures together make this one of the most visually arresting designs in the entire 1888 Shin Kōkyo commemorative print group.