Yanagishima Myōken · 48 FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO · HIROSHIGE...

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代歌川広重 (1826–1869) Title: Yanagishima Myōken 柳しま妙見 (No. 23) Series: Edo meisho shijūhakkei 江戸名所四十八景 — Forty-eight Famous Views of Edo Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō 蔦屋吉蔵 (Tsutakichi seal, right margin) Date: 1860–1861 (Man'en 1 / Bunkyū 1) Format: Chūban tate-e, 25 × 17 cm Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and colour on paper Signature: Hiroshige ga 廣重画, in a blue tanzaku cartouche at lower right CONDITION Strong impression and colors are well perserved with minor toning and some soiling, minor trimming on the margins. The paper is firm and subtle. Please check the images! ABOUT THE PRINT The "Myōken" of the title is the Myōken hall of Hosshōji temple (Yanagishima Myōken Hosshōji 柳嶋妙見山法性寺) in Yanagishima, written 柳しま in the title cartouche. Yanagishima lay on the eastern edge of the city, beyond the Sumida River, where canals ran out into open rice fields. The temple belongs to the Nichiren sect and is dedicated to Myōken Bosatsu, the Buddhist deity of the Pole Star and the Big Dipper, who was worshipped for protection and good fortune. Many Edo townspeople made the trip out to it, among them actors, writers and artists. The best known of them was Katsushika Hokusai, a lifelong devotee of Myōken; his own name, Hokusai, "North Studio", is generally linked to the Pole Star. mak The Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (MAK), which holds an impression of this sheet, points out that the paper kites flying over the scene recall Hokusai. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria describes the design as three kites in the sky above a river with a boat, a bridge, houses and people walking. The first Hiroshige had also included Yanagishima in his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and Hiroshige II revisited the temple again in 1862 in his Thirty-six Views of the Eastern Capital. ABOUT THE SERIES Edo Meisho Shijūhakkei is a complete set of forty-eight chūban sheets, each pairing one of Edo's famous places with the seasonal feature it was known for; the publisher's seal and the censor's seal alternate from sheet to sheet, and two printing dates are documented — the twelfth month of Man'en 1 (1860) and the first month of Bunkyū 1 (1861). The publisher was Kōeidō, Tsutaya Kichizō. Hiroshige II — born Suzuki Chinpei, pupil and adopted son-in-law of the first Hiroshige — inherited the name in 1858 and, with it, the obligation to keep the studio's famous-places line running. This set belongs to the very last years of Edo: within seven years of its publication the city had a new name and a new government, and the pleasure districts it records were about to change beyond recognition. The chūban format made them affordable souvenirs at the time, which is precisely why they now read as an unusually candid record of where townspeople actually went.

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