Hiroshige 広重: Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada from Yamashita-chô 山下町 日比谷 外さくら田

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 広重 (1797-1858)

Title: Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada from Yamashita-chô 山下町 日比谷 外さくら田

Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Meisho Edo Hyakkei 名所江戸百景

Date: 1857

Cheerfully amusing view of the great city of Edo on Japan’s most important holiday. Flying New Year’s kites echo the left curve of Mount Fuji, and uniquely charming are the two battledores whose unseen players are tossing the shuttlecock that floats in the middle sky. We see the entrance to the  mansion of the Nabeshima clan just beyond the curve of the moat. The strongly cropped elements of the foreground tree and the castle wall and the unseen humans that are playing with the battledores are a classic and unique example of Hiroshige’s innovative strengths. To this dealer, this “freeze frame” of the tossing shuttlecock evokes a movie poster that might be created a hundred years from the publication of this design. With lovely woodgrain evident in the foreground blocks and in the sky.

Condition: Excellent impression and color; very good condition. Center fold.

Dimensions: ôban (36.4 x 24.8 cm)  Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: Henry Smith II: Hiroshige One Hundred Famous View of Edo, plate 3. See MFA Boston, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, Chazen Museum, Honolulu Academy of Art.  Seal: Aratame & date year  Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIR551