Ukiyo-e Prints

浮世絵版画

Port Townsend, Washington

Utagawa Hiroshige II

二代歌川広重

うたがわひろしげ

(1829-69)

Print from the series "Edo no Hana Zukushi" (The List of Beauties of Edo)

江戸の花尽くし

えどのはなずくし

Print size: 9 3/8" x 7 1/8"

Date: 1849-50

Censors:

 Kinugasa (Kinugasa Fusajirō) and Watanabe (Watanabe Shōemon)

衣笠

きぬがさ

渡辺

わたなべ

Print type: aizuri-e

藍摺絵

あいずりえ

Signed: Shigenobu ga

(The two round seals represent the censor's seals.)

重宣画

しげのぶが

Publisher: Wakasa-ya Yoichi

若狭屋与市

わかさやよいち

$118.00

SOLD!

The translation of Japanese terms can be a bit confounding. For example, the title of this series is Edo no hana zukushi which can be translated as "The List of Beauties of Edo." However, the word hana can mean either "a flower" or (by extension) "a beautiful woman." This explains the pairing of the two major elements of this print.

An afterthought: The linking of women with flowers must be fairly universal. In the West it is not uncommon for a woman to be named Rose, Lily, Iris, Daisy, Violet, Jasmine, etc.

There are two triptychs by Hiroshige II in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco which also link women with flowers. Both are from 1857 and are entitled "A Procession of Women on a Journey of Flowers " or Hana no tabi onna gyoretsu (花の旅女行列 or はなのたびおんなぎょうれつ).

Anyone passionate for prints and paintings and unfamiliar with the image base of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco should seek it out and bookmark it. It is one of the greatest resources of its kind on the Internet.