About This Print
Depicting the 43rd of 53 stations along the Tōkaidō Road, which connected Edo (modern day Tokyo), where the shōgun resided, to Kyoto, where the emperor resided. The artist presents us with a daimyō and his retainers on the coast near Yokkaichi. A retainer looks out to sea with a telescope and we are shown a veiled scene of a distant land. I wonder if the daimyō pictured is the great warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).
About the Series
One of two series of chuban-size vertical prints designed by the artist depicting the stations along the Tōkaidō. This series, titled simply Tōkaidō Road (東海道), was published by Tsutaya Kichizō (the same publisher who published Utagawa Hiroshige I's famous "Vertical Tōkaidō" series1) between the 8th month of 1863 and the 12th month of 1867, a period of over three years. It is not known why the publishing period was so extended for these prints. Hiroshige II's other series titled Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五拾三駅) was issued by the publisher Maruya Tetsujirō in the 10th month of 1865 and is represented by a number of prints in this collection.
1 The formal name of the "vertical Tōkaidō" series is Famous Sights of the Fifty-three Stations [Gojūsan tsugi meisho zue], published in 1855.
Comparison Between the Series
Utagawa Hiroshige II
Yokkaichi (四日市) from the series
Tōkaidō Road (東海道), 1864
IHL Cat. 1200
Yokkaichi (四日市) from the series
Fifty-three Stations of the
Tôkaidô Road (東海道五拾三駅), 1865
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1200 |
| Title or Description | Yokkaichi 四日市 (Print no. 42 in the series) |
| Series | Tōkaidō Road 東海道 |
| Artist | Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826-1869) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | none |
| Publication Date |  子二改 Rat 2 aratame |
| Publisher | Tsutaya Kichizō [Marks: pub. ref. 556] Publisher's mark does not appear on this print. |
| Impression | good |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - mounting remnants verso in six spots; paper thinning top left corner |
| Genre | ukiyo-e, fūkei-ga |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | vertical chūban |
| H x W Paper | 9 3/4 x 7 in. (24.8 x 17.8 cm) |
| Literature | 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in. (22.2 x 16.5 cm) |
| Collections This Print |
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