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All auctions / Ancient Art / HIROSHIGE · Night Cherry Blossoms in the Yoshiwara · Tōto Meisho · ca
Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858) Title: Yoshiwara yozakura no zu 吉原夜桜之図 (Cherry Blossoms at Night in the Yoshiwara) Series: Tōto Meisho 東都名所 (Famous Places in the Eastern Capital) Date: ca. 1843–44 Publisher: Sanoya Kihei 佐野喜 (Kikakudō) Signature / seals: Signed Hiroshige ga 広重画; publisher's mark and censor seal at lower right Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and colour on paper Provenance: Huguette Berès Collection, Paris Condition A well inked impression with well-preserved colours; the composition reads clearly, as it should in such an iconic design. There is a minor repair to the margin and some minor creases, all confined to the margins outside the image. Good overall. Please check the images! About the Print The Yoshiwara, Edo's licensed pleasure quarter, was not only a place of courtesans and teahouses but also one of the city's great seasonal sights. From the mid-eighteenth century, cherry trees were brought in each spring and planted along Naka-no-chō, the quarter's main avenue, only to be removed again once the blossoms had fallen. Lit by the lanterns of the teahouses, these night cherries (yozakura) drew crowds from all over Edo, including many who never set foot inside a brothel, and the spectacle became one of the classic subjects of ukiyo-e. Hiroshige returned to Edo's famous places throughout his career and produced many series under the title Tōto Meisho for different publishers. This set, issued by Sanoya Kihei in the early 1840s, belongs to the period just after the Tenpō reforms, when direct images of courtesans were restricted and the landscape of a "famous place" offered a way to show the quarter as a public seasonal scene. The Yoshiwara night-cherry design is among the best-known sheets of the series and a good example of Hiroshige's gift for turning a crowded city view into a clear, balanced composition.
Estimate:£300.87
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Estimate:
£300.87
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