100 Views of Edo # 30 Deluxe 1st Edition by Ando Hiroshige

Artist: Ando Utagawa Hiroshige (1787-1858)

Woodblock Print Title: Plum Estate, Kameido (Kameido umeyashiki), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

1st Publication: November 1857

Size: Vertical oban; 13 7/8" x 9 1/4" (35.2 x 23.5 cm)

Date of this edition: November 1857, 1st edition

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Condition: Trimmed to the margins and re-margin, color fading, some very mild rubbing.

Notes: This is an extremely rare Deluxe edition with Mica in the tree area. Usually, this technique was reserved for good customer or prestigious people, as the technology was fairly new, expensive and difficult to master.

This print is one of the two that was copied by Vincent Van Gogh, and definitely in the top two most famous print from Ando Hiroshige.

Very rare 1st edition of this print.

More about this print: Hiroshige brings us face to face with the celebrated "Sleeping Dragon Plum" of Kameido. This tree, the most famous in Edo, was known for the purity of its double blossoms, which, according to one Edo guidebook, were "so white when full in bloom as to drive off the darkness." We are so close that we can almost smell the tree's powerful fragrance, reputed to have lured the shogun Yoshimune as he passed nearby in the early eighteenth century.

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.