Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) (artist 1797 – 1858)
Kameyama (亀山): Woman Dreaming of Omatsu (おまつ), Gennojō (源之丞), and Sodesuke (袖助) from the series Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対)
mid 1840s
9.75 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed:Hiroshige ga (広重画)
Publisher: Ibaya Kyūbei
(Marks 126 - seal 21-068)
Censor's seal: Mura
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Waseda University
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
National Diet Library
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Walters Museum of Art
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Carnegie Museum of Art
Museum of Oriental Art, Venice (via Ritsumeikan University)
Ritsumeikan University - Sadayoshi version of Hiroshige's original
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University
The Pushkin Museum
The National Gallery, Prague There are nine prints from this series, Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui - 東海道五十三対), in the Lyon Collection. See also #s 382, 815, 816, 819, 861, 951, 1022 and 1269.
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The text at the top in the fan-shaped cartouche reads:まだ霧ふかき朝まだき 城のこなたの松原にて 源之丞が二人の伜 かんなん辛苦も時を得て 恨みかさなる水右衛門を首尾よく討取本地に返り 名を万代に残しける めでたしめでたし
The translation reads: "The mist is still thick early in the morning at Matsubara on this side of the castle. The two sons of Gennojō, after much hardship and trouble, succeed in killing the much-hated Mizuemon and return home. Their names are remembered through the ages. A splendid outcome."
The text toward the bottom reads: 石井が隠妻（ことつま）お松といえるは明石の里に侘住ひ 二人り子供を養育し賎が手業に世を送る まづしき中に操を立 夫の身の上物案じ しばしまどろむ夕暮に 門辺にたたずむ源之丞 昔にかはらぬ立派の出立 お松は嬉しく出迎ひ 御堅固なりしか我夫（つま）と いわんとすればこつぜんと ねふりはさめて逆夢なる 返り討ときくよりも ひたんに袖をしぼりしが 思ひ定めて幼子を 舅の源蔵に預け置き みどりの黒髪をおし切て 菩提の道に入りにける
The translation reads: "Ishii's secret wife, who was named Omatsu, lived in seclusion in the village of Akashi. She raised two children and made her livelihood by humble manual labor. In these straitened circumstances she remained faithful and worried about her husband's welfare. One evening she dozed off and Gennojō, dressed in fine attire as of old, stopped by the gate. Just as she called out to her fine-looking husband, she suddenly awoke and realized it had all been a dream. When she heard that he had been killed by one the one upon who he had been seeking revenge, she collapsed in tears of grief. She resolved to entrust her children to the care of her father-in-law, Genzō. She then cut off her brilliant black locks and entered on the path of enlightenment."
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Kunisada's Tōkaidō: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 106, #T78-47.
2) four times in color in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada edited by Andreas Marks, University Press of Florida, 2015, on pages 139 and 183.
3) in color in a small reproducton in an online publication, 'Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui – Uma Série Japonesa na Coleção do Museu Calouste Gulbenkian' by Beatriz Quintais Dantas, her master's thesis, no. 47, April, 2021..
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Another copy of this print is one of 116 prints which were given by a private collector to the Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia in Spain.
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The original Tōkaidō was established by the Kamakura bakufu (1192-1333) to run from Kamakura to the imperial capital of Kyoto.
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The Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui: A collaborative work
Andreas Marks wrote in 'When two Utagawa masters get together. The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada' in Andon 84, November 2008, pp. 37 and 39:
"The artistic relationship between Hiroshige and Kunisada entered a new period in 1845, when both artists were commissioned to contribute to the series Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui). The Fifty-Three Pairs of the Tōkaidō is an example of a series where a number of artists were commissioned to contribute complete and individual designs under a specific theme. A few years before, the Kisokaidō series by Hiroshige and Eisen had been published with the same concept. This concept became quite common in the second half of the 1840s until the early 1850s, and sometimes the artists were supported by their disciples who drew inset cartouches.
The main contributor to the Fifty-three Pairs of the Tōkaidō was actually Kuniyoshi with 30 designs, followed by Hiroshige (21 designs), and Kunisada (eight designs)." This series of 59 ōban falls in a period when designers, actors, writers, and publishers had been imprisoned or expelled from Edo in the aftermath of the so-called Tenpō reforms (Tenpō no kaikaku). Only the joint effort of six different publishers made this series possible."
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About the fan cartouches found at the top of each print in this series
Laura W. Allen wrote about these fan-shaped cartouches on page 9 in 'An Artistic Collaboration: Traveling the Tōkaidō with Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada' in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada, edited by Andreas Marks, University Press of Florida, 2015: "At the outset someone decided that the publishers would promote their individual brands through the use of different-shaped cartouches... at the top of hte prints in the set: a bean shape (mame) for Ibaya Senzaburō (active 1810s to 1860s), a fan shape (ōgi) for Ibaya Kyūbei (active ca. 1804 to 1850s), two overlapped snowflake roundels (yukiwa) for Kojimaya Jūbei (active 1790s to 1860s), two overlapped round fans (uchiwa for Enshūya Matabei (active 1760s to early 1880s), a stylized shrimp (ebi for Ebiya Rinnosuke (active 1830s to 1890s), and a square (kaku for Iseya Ichiemon (active 1820s to 1860s). The six men were all former members of the fan makers' guild, and they worked in close proximity to each other, sharing or independently operating shops within the same Edo neighborhood, Nihonbashi Horiechō, all within the blocks designated as Itchōme and Nichōme. It was only the dissolution of the guild system during the Tenpō reforms that allowed other craftsmen, such as these former fan makers, to begin publishing single-sheet prints. The Tenpō reforms thus stimulated not only artistic change - in the development of new themes - but also social mobility, as the fan makers came to occupy new terrain with the publishing industry."
Ibaya Kyūbei (伊場屋久兵衛) (publisher)
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)