Hiroshige.
As merchantmen from Eastern Isles
In caravels of purple came,
With freight that alien heart beguiles,
Incense and cloths of woven flame,
So down the gulfs of elder time
Thy glorious pinions bear to me
Mad treasure from the unknown clime
Of worlds beyond the Western Sea.
Now in my bay the sails are furled.
But I, who guess their native skies,
Henceforth must roam that golden world,
Where strange winds whisper and strange scents rise.—
Immortal Fuji's snowy crown—
Wide seas with sky of amethyst—
A street where torrents thunder down—
Branches that toss against the mist—
Smooth hills and hill-girt plains where run
Streams through the rice-fields steeped in heat—
Pines gnarled above a sunken sun—
Cold heights where cloud and mountain meet.
Now visions enter to my breast
That from thy passion won their birth,
When like a bride in radiance dressed
Before thee glowed the summers of earth.
What magic gave thee to behold
This fairness, secret from our sight,
Where morning walks the world in gold,
Or seas turn grey with coming night?
For thee, as when the South Winds blow.
Lands burst to bloom. On every shore
Where beauty dwells thou didst bestow
A perilous mortal beauty more.
Twilight and morn on Biwa's breast—
Harima's sands and lordly pines—
White Hira-mountain's winter crest—
The low red dusk round Yedo shrines—
The moon beneath the Monkey Bridge—
The Poisoned River's brooding gloom—
Rose-dawn on some Tokaido ridge—
Pale water-worlds of lotus bloom.
Our toiling race is with the day
Wearied, and restless with the night,—
Unpausing, on its tombward way,
For fear or wonder or delight,—
Unwatchful, mid the sombre things
That mesh us in a vain employ,
For peace that half of heaven brings,
For beauty that is wholly joy.
Lover for whom the world was wide!
Down lighted pathways thou didst move,
Where hills and seas and cities hide
So much for weary men to love.—
The mist of cherry-trees in spring—
Ships sleeping on some bright lagoon—
A swallow's dusky sweeping wing—
Steep Ishiyama's autumn moon—
The changing marvels of faint rain—
The foam that hides the torrent's stream—
The eagle o'er the snowy plain—
Sea-twilights haunted as a dream.
Speaking, thou laidst thy brush aside—
"On a long journey I repair—
Regions beyond the Western Tide—
To view the wonderful landscapes there."
Yet, at Adzuma, loosed from all
Thy mortal bonds, made free to roam,
Methinks thou couldst not break the thral
That held thee to thy human home.
Surely no heaven could harbour thee,
Nor other world of keener bliss,
Who didst with such deep constancy
Worship the loveliness of this.
Moon-flooded throngs in Yedo streets—
Dawn quickened travellers on their road—
Lone ocean-fronting hill retreats—
An Oiran's perilous-sweet abode—
A mighty Buddha by the sea
Where all the wondering pilgrims meet—
Immortal Fuji, changelessly
Watching the world around her feet.
HIROSHIGE: HOMING GEESE AT KATADA—TWILIGHT.
One of the Series "Eight Famous Views of Lake Biwa." Size 9 × 13½. Signed Hiroshige ga.
Plate 52.
HIROSHIGE.
Hiroshige takes rank by unanimous consent as the foremost landscape artist produced by the Ukioye School. His prints, known to every one, have been more greatly admired in Western lands than the prints of any other artist except Hokusai. Hokusai's main concern was with the fundamental architecture of landscape; he outlined the structure of mountains, rocks, rivers, waves, and bridges with a hard and brilliant sharpness; but Hiroshige, less rigid in his treatment, seems chiefly intent upon the more delicate and transitory appearances of cloud and mist, rain and snow, sunrise and dusk, that give to a landscape at each moment so much of its specific character. These atmospheric effects of his are justly famous. Few landscape painters of any race have succeeded in rendering so finely the mood of a scene. No one can be insensible to the delicate peace and sweetness of a twilight like that of [Plate 52], or the vigorous life of wide sea spaces in [Plate 53], or the heavy hush of nightfall over the snow-covered village of [Plate 54]. Even more impressive are the luminous and solemn dusk on the Sumida River ([Plate 55]) and the mystery of the print called "The Bow-Moon" which appears as the [frontispiece].
The Bow-Moon.
Where the torrent leaps and falls,
And the hanging cliffs look down,
Cloven grey and ruddy walls
Each with ragged forest-crown,
There across the chasmèd deep
Spans a gossamer bridge on high;
And below, from gulfs of sleep,
Mounts the Bow-Moon up the sky.
Blue dusk, thickening whence she rose.
Her abysses veils; above
Moves she into twilight's close
As faint strains of music move.
On the eastern slope her feet,
White, in trancèd ecstasy,
Climb, a ghost of heaven so sweet
That the spent day cannot die.
Walled by crags on either side
Glimmers forth her figure wan,
Straying like some lonely bride
Through the halls of Kubla Khan.
Pilgrim of the riven deep!
Whereso'er thy lover lie,
Sleep to him is troubled sleep
While his Bow-Moon haunts the sky.
Hiroshige's great strength lay in his genius for strikingly effective composition, and in the skill with which he adapted his designs to the limitations of the colour-print technique. He reduced the pictured scene to a few simple elements of a highly decorative character, and managed to make them so symbolic and suggestive that we do not miss the multitude of details which he purposely omits. A strongly dominant unity of impression is the result. His finest designs convey a sense of personal feeling that even the Barbizon artists at their best do not surpass. With the limited resources of the wood block, he achieved subtle renderings of distance, aerial perspective, atmosphere, and light; and the poetic quality of his designs has endeared him to generations of print-lovers in a way more personal than is the case with any other artist. His work will stand beside the "Liber Studiorum" of Turner; it remains perhaps the most complete and magnificent landscape record that any land has ever had.
One curious characteristic of these prints at once strikes the Western eye—the use of a band of dark colour along the top of the picture, which is shaded gradually down into the clear white of the lower sky. This convention serves several purposes. It provides a mass to balance the colour at the bottom of the design, bringing the whole sheet into the picture and not leaving the upper portion as a mere margin above the landscape proper. It also creates depth and atmosphere, setting the brightest part of the design, the middle, back into the frame created by the upper and lower masses. And finally, it renders with peculiar accuracy the effect of gradual vanishing which we actually experience as we look at a landscape: in our visual field, the sky does not end in a sharp line, but blurs and darkens at the upper edge of the space that our eyes survey.
Hiroshige's bird and flower designs are works of extraordinary freshness and loveliness; a unique and idyllic charm emanates from them, and as compositions they take high rank ([Plate 56]).
Alilt against the emerald sky,
A tiny violet songster swings,
Clutching a branch, in ecstasy
Of light and height and skiey things.
Singing, he swings; and swinging, I
For once am showered with joy of wings.
Keen and pure, of a magic power,
Thy rapture stirs what was never stirred.
Thou hast brought to earth a cloudland dower,
The joy of the small sweet singing bird.
All time is richer for thy hour
Of delicate music, gravely heard.
Does the iris droop beneath the heat?
Its weariness finds voice in thee.
Does the pheasant run with snow-clogged feet?
Winter is theirs who thy vision see.
Is summer's glow to the swallow sweet?
Thou hast captured its summer eternally.
Each thou hast wrought as a lyric note
Pure with one mood of sky and trees
And flowers, and tiny lives that float
Or dart or poise in world of these.
The painter's hand, the thrush's throat—
Which masters best these melodies?
Gusty rain through the tree-tops blown
And a bird that scuds where the grey gusts hiss—
Sapphire wings and a golden crown
Flung skyward in unconscious bliss—
No rare enchanted bird has known
As thou hast known the savour of this!
And winning it, thou hast cast aside
Thy native bonds of mortal birth,
Flinging the spirit-pinions wide
Above this world of weary worth,
To float and poise and skyward ride
With those whose realm is not the earth—
The peacock in his proud repose—
Wild geese that rush across the moon—
The little sleepy owl that knows
The wind-among-the-tree-tops tune—
The kingfisher that darts and glows
Over the reeds of the lagoon—
The flower-lured humming-bird that weaves
Spirals more delicate than they—
Sanderlings that on moonlit eves
Over the wave-crest swoop and play—
The crane that shores of sunset leaves
For sunset skies of far away.
HIROSHIGE: THE SEVEN RI FERRY, KUWANA, AT THE MOUTH OF THE KISO RIVER—SUNSET.
One of the Series "The Fifty-three Post Stations of the Tokaido Road." Size 9 × 14. Signed Hiroshige ga.
Plate 53.
Hiroshige was born in 1796, just as the great period of figure-designing was drawing to its close. As a youth he attempted to gain entrance to the studio of Toyokuni; but the fortunate fact that there was no room for him forced him to enter the studio of the less popular but more subtly gifted Toyohiro. Here he studied landscape, a branch in which he was destined far to outstrip his master. That delicate genius which was Toyohiro's cannot but have produced its effect upon the pupil; and it pleases one to fancy that it is some echo of Toyohiro's inarticulate refinement of feeling that gains at last full expression in some of Hiroshige's most beautiful landscapes.
In 1828 Toyohiro died; and Hiroshige became independent. His earliest works probably antedate this time a little; they consist of a few figures of women and actors, and two very fine horizontal landscape series. These were the "Toto Meisho," or earliest series of Yedo views, distinguished by curious long red clouds in each plate; and the "Honcho Meisho," a group of views of the main island of Japan. Particularly the first of these sets contains work of great beauty.
Shortly after 1830 Hiroshige found occasion to travel from Yedo, the northern capital, to Kyoto, the southern capital, along the great post-road which he has immortalized—the Tokaido. There resulted his series of horizontal plates, "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," completed about 1834. This remains his best-known and unsurpassed work. [Plate 53] is from this series. Each picture records with unfailing vividness and originality some famous scene along the crowded national highway. For reasons unknown to us, Hiroshige prepared new designs for some of the plates after the original publication of the series; and these variation-plates are of great interest to collectors.
Of the many series that followed, only the most important can be named here. All are of horizontal shape unless otherwise designated.
Naniwa Meisho, ten views of Osaka—chiefly crowded wharf and market scenes.
Kyoto Meisho, ten views of Kyoto; a varied and delightful series containing many fine prints.
HIROSHIGE: THE VILLAGE OF FUJI KAWA—EVENING SNOW.
One of the Vertical Tokaido Series. Size 13½ × 9. Signed Hiroshige ga.
Plate 54.
Omi Hakkei, the Eight Famous Views of Lake Biwa; the most poetic and possibly the greatest of his works ([Plate 52]).
Kanazawa Hakkei, the Eight Famous Views of the Inlet of Kanazawa; distinguished by a fine simplicity of composition.
Yedo Kinko Hakkei, the Eight Famous Views of Yedo; a series of masterpieces, of great rarity.
Chiushingura, sixteen scenes from the story of the Forty-seven Ronin; fine dramatic compositions, with powerful blacks and greys predominating.
Toto Meisho and Yedo Meisho, names under which more than fifty different series of Yedo views were issued by different publishers. These sets include many masterpieces.
Nihon Minato Tsukushi, ten views of the Harbours of Japan.
Toto Meisho, a series of narrow upright panels of Yedo; several are very distinguished.
Mu Tamagawa, views of the Six Tama Rivers.
Series of Fishes.
Kwa Cho, upright panels of birds and flowers, some on full-sized sheets, others very narrow; uneven in quality, some being masterpieces ([Plate 56]).
Fan Prints, with landscapes or bird designs.
In the year 1842 began the so-called Prohibition Period of twelve years, when the sale of actor and courtesan prints was forbidden. The effect of this was to redouble the demand for landscape prints; and Hiroshige was called upon to supply it. This he did by issuing, among others, the following sets:—
Tokaido Series, published by Maruzei; next best to the "Great Tokaido Series" of 1834.
Tokaido Series, published by Yesaki; slightly smaller than the "Great Series"; when well-printed, which is rare, they take a very high place.
Tokaido Series, published by Sanoki, half-plate size; including many charming designs.
Kisokaido, the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido Road between Yedo and Kyoto; a series in which Keisai Yeisen collaborated, producing twenty-three of the seventy plates. Many of the plates are uninteresting; but a quarter of them are superb. The set was reprinted at least twice in inferior editions.
In this, which we may call the Kisokaido Period of Hiroshige's work, he abandoned to a certain extent the delicate drawing of his Great Tokaido and Yedo Period and employed larger unbroken colour masses, aiming at broader effects.
In the fifties, Hiroshige abandoned almost entirely the horizontal or lateral prints of his earlier days and adopted the upright shape. In this form he produced the following series, as well as others not named:—
Upright Tokaido, published by Tsutaya, 1855; a fine series when well printed, but the late editions were crude in colour ([Plate 54]).
Views of the Sixty-nine Provinces, 1856; the rare first edition, which is much the finer, is distinguished by having five seals on the face of each plate. It contains a great deal of uninteresting work, but also ten or fifteen masterpieces.
HIROSHIGE: THE OMMAYA EMBANKMENT, ON THE SUMIDA RIVER AT ASAKUSA—EVENING.
One of the Series "The Hundred Views of Yedo." Size 13 × 9. Signed Hiroshige ga.
Plate 55.
Three Triptychs.—The Rapids of Awa No Naruto, Moonlight View of Kanazawa, and Snow Mountains on the Kiso Highway, all dated 1857, and all magnificent.
Two Kakemono-ye, very large—the Monkey Bridge and the Snow Gorge of the Fuji River, things of matchless impressiveness.
The One Hundred Views of Yedo, 1858; 119 plates, including, besides much rubbish, 25 masterpieces ([Plate 55]).
The Thirty-six Views of Fuji, 1859; inferior, upon the whole, to his earlier work. There are in existence very few well-printed copies.
In the last two or three of these series it is more than probable that Hiroshige was assisted by his pupil Hiroshige II. The finest plates in all these later series are equal to the master's most splendid earlier designs; but certain of the plates are of so banal a character that it is impossible to believe them to be from the great man's hand. Doubtless the distinction between the work of the two artists cannot always be drawn with certainty; but as a general rule we may regard the work as that of Hiroshige II if we find the figures stiff and wooden, if the composition is lacking in any central unity, or if some large ugly object is thrust into the foreground with the hope of thus putting the background into its proper relative place. At this period less care was taken with the printing, and the majority of prints from these later series are miserable impressions that libel Hiroshige's powers. When well printed they can be very fine indeed; but the poor copies outnumber the good a hundred to one.
In the year 1858, just after the publication of the "One Hundred Views of Yedo," Hiroshige died. He did not live to see the plates for his "Thirty-six Views of Fuji" completed. One of the collector's treasures is a striking memorial portrait by Kunisada that was issued shortly after Hiroshige's death. The old man is represented with a finely shaped head, powerful, quiet features, and eyes as piercing as an eagle's.
The number of Hiroshige's different designs runs into at least three or four thousand, not counting his illustrated books; and there must be in existence a hundred thousand prints by him. His work is almost as plentiful as that of all the other artists taken together. In spite of this great abundance, the collector finds it difficult to-day to obtain many really fine prints by him. The prints usually offered are either in bad condition, or they are careless impressions produced without proper attention to the difficult problem of printing. The rush occasioned by Hiroshige's popularity naturally led to slighted work. Even in these poor copies a certain fascination of design generally appears; but it is only in the carefully printed copies, where the register is accurate and the colours are delicately graded, luminous, and soft, that the full beauty of Hiroshige's conception is made clear. Familiarity with the finer impressions forever spoils the attentive observer's taste for the crude ordinary copies. The task of the collector of Hiroshige's work to-day resolves itself into a search for these rare and precious early prints. The collector should lose no opportunity to compare different copies of the same print; only thus can he educate his eyes sufficiently to appreciate the vast difference between fine and inferior examples. The difference, once grasped, is unforgettable.
HIROSHIGE: BIRD AND FLOWERS.
Size 15 × 7. Signed Hiroshige, hitsu.
Plate 56.
The reader who desires detailed information as to the long list of Hiroshige's work is referred to the Sale Catalogue of the Collection of John Stewart Happer (Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge, London), which is the present foundation for any real study of the subject. A valuable article on seal-dates by Major J. J. O'Brien Sexton, in the International Studio for May, 1913, should also be consulted by the student.