About This Print
One of a number of similar prints designed by Nobukazu and published in 1900 (see below) to popularize the ceremonies around the wedding of twenty-one year old Crown Prince Yoshihito to sixteen year old Kujō Sadako, daughter of Duke Michitaka Kujō.From the time of the decision of the prince's marriage on August 21, 1899 to the marriage ceremony itself on May 10, 1900 , a series of newly fabricated events, including the marriage ceremony itself, had been instituted by the newly formed Imperial Institutions Investigatory Bureau (teishitsu seido chōsa kyoku), which was tasked with studying European monarchy practices in order to "create a modern monarchy that they believed would represent a level of civility equal to that of the West..."1
1 Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan, T. Fujitani, University of California Press, 1998, p. 118.
top to bottom:
Picture of Wedding Ceremony of the Noble Couple
A Variant Printing
last revision:
The publisher created at least one other impression of this print with a slightly different color scheme, as shown below.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1327 |
| Title | Illustration of Wedding Ceremony of the Noble Couple 高位婚礼式之図 Kōi konreishiki no zu |
| Artist | Watanabe Nobukazu (1872-1944) |
| Signature |  應需楊斎 ōju Yōsai |
| Seal | no seal |
| Publication Date | 1900 February 明治卅三年二月 |
| Publisher |  reading from right to left: 明治卅三年二月 日印刷 [Meiji 33 3rd month 24th day printed] 仝年二月 日発行 [Meiji 33 3rd month 27th day published] [publisher's address] 印刷兼 発行者 長谷川常次郎 [printed and published Hasegawa Tsunejirō] |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - 3 panels joined; not backed; trimmed to image; paper wrinkling; horizontal fold |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; kaika-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | vertical oban triptych |
| H x W Paper | 14 x 27 3/4 in. (35.6 x 70.5 cm) |
| H x W Image | same as image |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Museum of Fine Arts, Boson 2000.257a-c; National Library of Australia Bib ID 5009992 |
4/16/20
 |  |  |  |  |