Hiroshige 広重: First Edition of Ueno, Yamashita (SOLD)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 広重 (1797-1858)
Title: First Edition Ueno, Yamashita
Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 名所江戸百景 
Date: 1858

First, or Deluxe Edition. A very orderly procession of women holding aloft identical purple parasols is glimped at left, pedestrians along the road stopping to marvel at them. The small shrine hidden in the wooded area is Gojo Tenjin, and to the right is the restaurant Iseya, which advertises a dish called “shiso-meshi”, rice with pickled shiso leaf. We see customers on the upper story, also looking out at the parade below. Beneath the restaurant we see a fish shop, with enormous flatfish hanging from the rafters. Above fly a flock of birds, perhaps swallows, and in the middle distance is red and yellow-tinged glove clouds. The inimitable hallmarks of Hiroshige may be seen in the overall diagonal design elements, as well as the cropped procession that is barely hinted at, although if  were were seeing it in person would surely be the focus of our view. With mica on the roof, clouds and road and beautiful woodgrain in the sky.

Scarce in this first edition.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition
Dimensions: ôban 36.5 x 24.6 cm
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: Henry Smith II: Hiroshige One Hundred Famous View of Edo: plate 12. See Brooklyn Museum and Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIC112N