100 Views of Edo # 41 Deluxe 1st Edition by Ando Hiroshige

Additional Pictures: Artist: Ando Utagawa Hiroshige (1787-1858)

Woodblock Print Title: 100 Views of Edo # 41: Ichigaya Hachiman Shrine

1st Publication: October 1858

Size: Oban; 8 3/4" x 13 1/4" + Margins as shown

Date of this edition: October 1858, 1st edition

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Condition: Trimmed to the margin in the upper, left and lower section of the print, affecting the seals. Margins partially trimmed on the right side.

Notes: Very rare 1st edition of this print with 3 colors in the cartouche title. Deluxe edition with Mica in the river bank area. Usually, this technique was reserved for good customer or prestigious people, as the technology was fairly new, expensive and difficult to master.

More about this print: Ichigaya Hachiman Shrine was not as culturally lofty as this image suggests. Within the shrine precinct itself was located a theater and numerous tea stalls, and the bustling street was known throughout Japan for the prostitutes who plied their trade there.

lchigaya Hachiman was located at the western edge of a long bluff that in the Edo period was one of the estates of the Tokugawa family of Owari (Nagoya), and a watchtower and part of the outer barrack walls of the Owari mansion can be seen at the upper left. It was there that the novelist Mishima Yukio performed his dramatic ritual suicide in 1970.

Pictures: Pictures are taken outdoor, in the shade, to reflect true colors, without any enhancements of any kind. The last picture is taken indoor, with a light behind the print, to reveal the exact paper grain, holes if any, or other possible flaws.