Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1797–1861), unsigned, as is usual for shunga Title: Seta no sekishō (Evening Glow at Seta), parody design Series: Ōmi hakkei 遇見八景 ("Eight Views of Lovers' Meetings"), also written 逢見八景 Date: 1833 (Tenpō 4) Reference: Shirakura Yoshihiko, Japanese Shunga of Kuniyoshi (Heibonsha, 2012), p. 82 Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), nishiki-e Format: Ōban yoko-e, approx. 25 × 36 cm, with central fold ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Paper & condition Good colours and a good impression. There is soiling and scuffs towards the centre and along the margins. A professional cleaning can improve the composition. The sheet has a central fold, which is found on all known impressions of this series. This sheet is unbacked. Fair condition overall! Please check the images carefully! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Series Evening Glow at Seta (Seta no sekishō) is one of the classic Eight Views of Ōmi. It celebrates the Long Bridge of Seta (Seta no Karahashi), where the Seta River leaves the southern end of Lake Biwa. The bridge controlled the main eastern approach to Kyoto and was strategically important for centuries. The crossing has two spans linked by a small island in the river: the larger Ōhashi on the east side and the smaller Kobashi on the west. In Kuniyoshi's 1833 shunga parody of the Eight Views, each classical landscape is reworked as a lovers' scene. A fan-shaped landscape inset, a standard feature of the series, keeps the original view in sight. Japanese commentary on this design reads the composition as a pun on the bridge: the arched, overlapping bodies of the couple stand in for the two spans of the Karahashi, and the red bedding stands in for the glow of sunset. As with all designs in the series, the humour depends on the viewer knowing the classical landscape canon and enjoying its irreverent reworking. That combination of wit and invention runs through Kuniyoshi's work in every genre.