Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) (artist 1797 – 1858)

Abalone, needlefish and peach blossoms from an untitled series known as the Large Fish (Uozukushi [魚尽くし])

Print

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Date:ca 1832 – 1833
Dimensions:10.5 in x 14.75 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ichiryūsai Hiroshige ga
一立斎広重画
Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Marks 391)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Links Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Honolulu Museum of Art - referred to as "Halfbeak, Abalone and Peach Blossoms" - dated ca. 1836-38
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Harvard Art Museums
Keio University Library
Kanagawa Prefectural Museum
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Ville de Genève
Chazen Museum of Art
National Diet Library
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden)
Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA
Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena
Portland Art Museum
Jordan Schnitzler Museum of Art
National Gallery, Prague
Hermitage Museum
Umi-no-Meru Mori Art Museum (via Cultural Heritage Online)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Description:"In c. 1832, when Hiroshige was experiencing his first period of success and had been approached with multiple commissions, he also turned to a subject which up to that point nobody had dealt with in a similar way. Perhaps there wee two precedents in book form, both anthologies of haiku: Katsuma Ryūsi's beautiful haiku book titled Umi no sachi, (Boon from the sea, 1762... and Kitao Masayoshi's Tatsu no Miya Tsuko (Servitors to the Dragon Palace, 1802)...

A group of poets commissioned the production of an album of ten prints illustrating fishes accompanied by kyōka verses. The name of the group is unknown, but the names of the individuals include some well-known poets, some of them affiliated to the Yomogawa circle. The first edition of ten prints was issued in album form, and therefore all the designs have a centerfold. The names of the poets are presented alongside the poems, though the publisher's seal and kiwame censorship seal are absent. Just as in the case of the Edo kinko hakkei no uchi series... commissioned by the Taihaidō group, the fish series which at this point included 11 designs, appeared slightly later in a commercial edition published by Nishimuraya Yohachi around 1832-34. in 1840 nine prints were added carrying the publisher's seal of Yamada Shōjirō."

Quoted from: Hiroshige: Shaping the Image of Japan by Chris Uhlenbeck and Marije Jansen, 2008, p. 41.

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"This series of ten or eleven prints - it is not certain whether a print of trout belongs tothe series or not - was originally commissioned by a poetry club. They were thus first issued as a de luxe kyōka folding albums and all the prints from the first edition... have a centerfold.

Bokashi was added to the upper edge in later impressions..."

Quoted from: Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings by Matthi Forrer, Prestel, 1997, n.p., entry #82.

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Keio University's digital web site give the motif description as 魚づくし 鮑とさより (Sakana-dzukushi awabi to sayori [according to the Google translator] - Fish Dzukushi abalone and Hyporhamphus sajori.

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There are three kyōka accompanying the image. All of them are translated by Alfred Haft.

雲垣富士見
波に洗ひ磯の巌に
すりつけて鮑は
おのか玉をみかける

Kumogaki Fujimi
Nami ni arai iso no iwao ni
suritsukete awabi wa
onoga tama o migakeru

Securely fastened to the large boulders offshore and washed by the waves, every abalone is polishing each its own pearl [by] Kumogaki Fujimi

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三輪垣甘喜
献立のあはせさよりも
衣かへわたをぬきてそ
こしらへにける

Miwagaki Amaki
Kondate no awase sayori mo
koromogae wata o nukite zo
koshirae ni keru

The pair of halfbeaks on the menu have both had the stuffing taken out of them, like robes remade for the first day of summer [by] Miwagaki Amaki

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千代垣素直
これもまたちひさて
ならむ岩あひの
細きすきまの
あはひ
とる海士

Chiyogaki Sunao
Kore mo mata chiisate
naramu iwa-ai no
hosoki sukima no
awabi toru
ama

He, too, probably has to be on the small side, the ocean diver who retrieves abalone from the crannies between rocks [by] Chiyogaki Sunao

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Illustrated in color in a full-page reproduction in Hiroshige: the Master of Nature by Gian Carlo Calza, Skira, 2009, p. 63. Listed as I.47. Referred to as "Halfbeak, Abalone and Peach Blossoms". A different edition. (The print in the Lyon Collection has more seals and the artist's seal is different.) The catalog says: "The chromatic contrast achieved through the discerning juxtaposition of the blue of the fish, commonly known as a halfbeak (sayori), and the two abalones (awabi) with the intense pink of the peach blossoms gives the image a sense of vitality rather than stillness or death. The image transmits a Shinto feeling of oneness with nature that transforms the events of life, including death, into events of greater universal meaning, thus stripping them of their drama.

The three poems laud each of the three subjects of the print: Rinsing with waves / and rubbing against rocks on the shore / the awabi / polishes its jewel

(Nami ni arai / iso no awao ni / suritsukete / awabi wa ono ga / tama o migakeri) by Kumogaki Fusimi; Also the sayori that complements the dish, / changes garb; / it is gutted / and sliced (Kondate no / awase sayori mo / koromo kae / wata o nukite zo / koshirae ni keru ) by Miwagaki Mimiyoshi; The anglers catch the awabi / in the narrow fissures / of a rocky gorge, / that itself is small ( Kore mo mata / chilisade naramu / iwaai no / hosoki sukia no / awabi toru ama) by Chiyogaki Sunao." This entry is by Rosella Menegazzo.

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Illustrated:

1) in a small black and white reproduction in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, #403, p. 137. There is also a colored reproduction on page 41., #94.

2) in black and white in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections: Museo d'Arte Orientale, Genoa II, vol. 11, Kodansha, 1989, supervised by Muneshige Narazaki, p. 189, #89.

3) in a black and white reproduction in 'Hiroshige: A shoal of red herrings' by Richard Kruml in Andon 49, October, 1994, fig. 6, p. 17. Kruml wrote: "Awabi or tokobushi, abalone or 'sea-ear' (Haliotus tuberculata) and sayori, Japanese halfbeak or snipe-fïsh, (Hemirhamphus sayorí). Together with peach blossom. Poems by Kumogaki Fujimi and Miwagaki Mimiki."

4) in color in a full-page reproduction in Hiroshige: the Master of Nature by Gian Carlo Calza, Skira, 2009, p. 63. Listed as I.47.

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There is another copy of this print in the Worcester Art Museum.
Related entities kachō-e (bird and flower picture - 花鳥絵) (genre)
Nishimuraya Yohachi (西村屋与八) (publisher)

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