About This Print
Number 181 of twenty-eight prints from the series Views of the Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meisho zue) issued by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi V in 1896 and 1897. (For additional information on this series see the article Views of the Famous Sights of Japan.)Sources: http://www.tutorgigpedia.com/ed/Kannonzaki_Lighthouse and Guide of City of Yokosuka & Miura Peninsula
Kiyochika pictures a lone boat being plied off the rocky coast of Cape Kannon on the eastern edge of the Miura Peninsula along the southwest portion of Tokyo Bay. In 1812 the Tokugawa Shogunate set up a lookout here to protect Edo from Western ships. In 1868 a lighthouse was built on the cape under the direction of of the Frenchmen F. L. Verny following the requests of foreign powers under the provisions of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858. It was the first modern lighthouse to be built in Japan, being first lit on February 11, 1869, immediately after the Meiji restoration, and during the last months of the Boshin War. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1922. A second lighthouse was soon destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The one we can see today is the third one, made in 1925.
 1st Kannonzaki Lighthouse 1750 candlepower light reaches up to 14 nautical-miles Source: Guide of City of Yokosuka & Miura Peninsula |  |
1 The print's series number can be seen at the bottom of the left hand margin and as printed actually reads "81".
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #877 |
| Title or Description | Cape Kannon (Kannonzaki 観音埼) |
| Series | Views of the Famous Sights of Japan Nihon meishō zue 日本名勝図会 |
| Artist | Kiyochika Kobayashi (1847-1915) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | Kiyochika (see above) |
| Publication Date | February 1897 (Meiji 30) |
| Publisher | Matsuki Heikichi [proprietor of Daikokuya Heikichi] with Daihei seal 松木平吉 大平 [Marks: seal not shown; pub. ref. 029] |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | fair - extensive paper soiling, light wrinkling, unbacked |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; meisho-e |
| Miscellaneous | Number 18 in the series (numbers are transposed to "81" on the print's bottom left hand margin) |
| Format | vertical oban |
| H x W Paper | 14 x 9 1/4 in. (35.6 x 23.5 cm) |
| H x W Image | 13 3/8 x 8 5/8 in. (34 x 21.9 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | National Diet Library 寄別1-9-2-5 |
3/9/2020
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