Here is a beautifully printed and edited reproduction of the complete "Famous Views of the [Sixty-odd] Provinces" (Rokujuyoshu meisho zue, 1853-1856), by Utagawa Hiroshige. Conceived just before his great final series, the "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," this 69-plate collection of ukiyoe woodblock prints is less personal, less idiosyncratic, and appears consequently a bit less unexpected.
Nonetheless, it contains enough beauty and individuality to reward attention. For one thing, the print layout is vertical rather than horizontal. This means a different kind of suggested spaciousness -- for example, much more sky than is usual for such images. For another thing, this sky, as well as the broad sweep of bays and ocean common to this series, is shown through Hiroshige's growing mastery of the technique of bokashi (graduated printing).
Hiroshige would print the background, then on the same block, moisten over the area to be shaded. A brush with color on one side and water on the other would be stroked across the paper and the pigment would flow toward the water, creating a gentle cross fade.
It was a technique difficult to control, and in this series is seen at its finest. (The collection photographed for this publication, incidentally, is composed almost completely of deluxe first-editions, a collection that once belonged to Frank Lloyd Wright.)
The scenic beauty and population of these idyllic landscapes adds to the series' individuality. Though there are people in the "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," they are often in the distance, or they have their faces looking in another direction. In the famous snow scene "Kinryusan Temple, Asakusa," every face is turned away; and in the "Night View of Saruwaka-machi," people are virtually faceless.
In the "Famous Views of the [Sixty-odd] Provinces," however, people may be tiny, dwarfed by distance (only the three shrine-going ladies in the Izumo Taisha print are seen closely enough to register details), but they are definitely there, adding their human energy to the scenery. These scenes, from all 60 provinces, contain much of what one might expect: Arashiyama, Amano Hashidate, Miyajima, the Asakusa fair. But it also includes little-seen landscapes, such as big rocks in Bingo and the little village of Gokanosho in Higo.
This Higo village raises the question of whether Hiroshige actually went and saw the scenes here rendered. The editors of this edition show us not only the Hiroshige print but also the Hokusai manga from which it was copied.
It would indeed have been difficult for Hiroshige to have gone to every place he drew pictures of, nor does it much matter. As author Marije Jansen notes: "It was common for artists to base their designs on older sources . . . even when print artists did travel, making sketches along the way, it was often their traditional training and knowledge that inspired the actual print."
Thus, though Hiroshige was among the first artists to depict existing places according to his own artistic responses, it was still common practice to base a design for a print on an older, existing version.
In addition to supplying us with the occasional earlier work that inspired the design, the layout also includes an extra, smaller, reproduction of the print under discussion. On the left-hand pages, noteworthy points -- bokashi, overprinting, differences from later impressions -- are indicated. On the right are large reproductions (297 mm by 210 mm) of the original oban print.
This, the second in the "Famous Japanese Prints" series, comes with notes, a map of Japan, another of its provinces, a bibliography and an index. The Japanese edition was published by the Iwanami Shoten in 1996, and there is a separate edition of the series published by Ronin Gallery in 1987.
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