Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
View of Ejiri (Ejiri no zu: 江尻之図) 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
Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada (応需香蝶楼国貞)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - published by both Sanoya Kihei and Moriya Jihei
National Diet Library - published by both Moriya Jihei and Sanoya Kihei
British Museum - Hiroshige's 'Ejiri Miho embo'
Virginia Museum of Fine Art
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr
Honolulu Museum of Art - published by Moriya Jihei
The Spencer Museum of Art
Google maps - Ejiricho of Shimizu ward
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the University of California In Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts on page 182 it says: "Ejiri is now included in the large city of Shimizu, which occupies the western side of the harbor at Suruga Bay."
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This is number 19 in the series.
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In Tokaido Landscapes: The Path from Hiroshige to Contemporary Artists, 2011, #19, p. 31, speaking of the original Hiroshige print it says in a text by Sasaki Moritoshi: "Miho no Matsubara (the Miho pine grove) cuts across the middle of the frame. Following the white sails of the boats on the sea draws the eye toward the distant horizon. Izu Peninsula should be visible here, but by intentionally leaving it out and drawing a horizon, Hiroshige imparts a feeling of openness. The open expanse of the sea and the sky produces a pleasant light-filled seascape that is suited to the temperate climate of Suruga Province, as this area known in the Edo period. On the left, the rugged slopes of Mount Ashitaka also seem to be filled with sunlight."
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A very small and distant Mt. Fuji appears right of center in the Hiroshige print but not at all in the Kunisada version. In the latter Fuji would be to the right of the right edge of the print.
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In Masterworks of Ukiyo-e: Hiroshige, the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō by Muneshige Narazaki. 1969, p. 46 it says: "A busy port in Hiroshige's time, Ejiri is now the bustling city of Shimizu, with a population of over two hundred thousand.... Left is Mount Ashitaka."
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Hokusai and the Tōkaidō set the precedent for this series
Hokusai did at least two different series based loosely on the Tōkaidō Road in the early years of the 19th century. Some showed figures with landscapes and some simply showed domestic scenes associated with individual stations. These are interesting precedents to both Hiroshige's series of landscapes from the early 1830s which formed the basis of Kunisada's series which are mostly takeoffs of Hiroshige's prints, but which are also an excuse for the display of beautiful women separated from the background scenes by a cloud motif. For that reason we have added Hokusai's precedent pieces whenever we can identify the particular station featured at this site.
In one of his early sets there is an emphasis on local products. These were originally produced like surimono created for a poetry club and were often accompanied by poems.
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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 67, T24-19.
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (author)