Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
View of Otsu (Otsu no zu: 大津之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi: 東海道五十三次之内)
ca 1838
Signed: Gototei Kunisada ga (五渡亭国貞画)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Diet Library
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Honolulu Museum of Art
Fujisawa Ukiyo-e Museum
Spencer Museum of Art
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr This is number 54 in the series.
The curatorial notes at Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna state: "The picture of the station Ōtsu 大 津 in the background was conceived by Kunisada himself and shows a shop from the village. The shop sells woodcuts and scroll paintings and especially woodcuts called genanntentsu-e 大 津 絵 (pictures from Ōtsu). Ōtsu-e form their own genre within the woodcuts and are characterized by an almost cartoon-like style. The large sign at the entrance shows one of the most famous motifs of Ōtsu-e: a demon (oni) in penance with a gong and list of founders... In front of the shop, several travelers who have already bought a picture or want to buy one more. Special products that a place or region had to offer were often bought as souvenirs. The woman in the foreground in a red kimono decorated with water wheels. She wears particularly high geta (Japanese wooden sandals)."
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There is no corresponding Hiroshige template for this Kunisada print.
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It says in In Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts on page 152: "The earliest mention of the term Ōtsu-e is in The Tale of the Red-Banded Sand Wasp (Jigabachi monogatari), published in 1661. This haiku was penned by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694) on the fourth day of he New Year, which he spent at Ōtsu, in 1691."
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Illustrated in a small color reproduction in Kunisada's Tokaido: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 75, T24-54.
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)