100 Views of Edo # 108 Deluxe Edition by Ando Hiroshige

Artist: Ando Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Title: 100 Views of Edo # 108: View of Shiba Coast

1st Publication: February 1856

Size: 9 x 13-1/2 + Margins as shown

Date of this edition: February 1856

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Carver: Hori-Sen

Condition: A very old fold now entirely flattened and nearly invisible, a clear spot in the right margin, a repaired area professionally treated a very long time ago, and some left over from prior mounting on the back of the upper corner margins. Very Good overall condition

Notes: Original 1st edition by Uoya in 1856.
This is one of the extremely rare deluxe edition, with mica in the water, as you can see on the additional picture section. 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: As one of the very first prints produced in the series, this image of the Shiba coast along Edo Bay provides early evidence of the distinctive type of composition found later in the series, in which a cut-off section of an enlarged foreground element is set against a distant landscape. We can see the artist working toward a clear division of the foreground and background elements into different spaces. However, the space of the large A-frame channel marker in the foreground is still read as continuous with the background, particularly because of the second marker in the distance. As a result, the boats on the right seem strangely dwarfed in size