Chats on Japanese Prints

by Arthur Davison Ficke

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.