100 Views of Edo # 47 Deluxe Edition by Ando Hiroshige

Artist: Ando Utagawa Hiroshige (1787-1858)

Woodblock Prints Title: Seidô and Kanda River from Shôhei Bridge (Shôheibashi Seidô Kandagawa), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

1st Publication: September 1857

Size: Vertical oban; 34 x 21.9 cm (13 3/8 x 8 5/8 in.)

Date of this edition: September 1857

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Condition: Tiny repair in the upper right margin, very mild soiling, else very fine. Excellent colors, fair impression (Rain is slightly off), very good to excellent overall condition.

Notes: This is an extremely rare Deluxe edition with Mica in the sky 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: Description This is the first of three depictions of rain in the series, all belonging to the season of summer. Here Hiroshige represents the steady slanting sort of rain typical of the June "plum rain"—named for the fruit that appears then—a pleasant sea of dull skies and rich greens that the print perfectly captures.

In the Kanda River boatmen protected by straw rain capes pole their loads of lumber, while the people on the hill and the birds in the sky all seem at ease bathed in the warm summer shower. The outer walls of Yushima Seidō Shrine, founded in the seventeenth century for the study of Confucianism, are pictured on the far slope.

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.