100 Views of Edo # 79 Deluxe 1st Edition by Ando Hiroshige

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

Woodblock Print Title: 100 Views of Edo # 79 Shiba Shinmei Shrine and Zôjôji Temple

1st Publication: July 1858

Size: Oban; 13 1/4" x 8 5/8" + Margins as shown (21.8 x 33.7 cm + margins)

Date of this edition: July 1858, 1st edition

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Condition: Trimmed to the margin, affecting the seals, a couple of restored pin holes in the sky area.

Notes: Extremely rare 1st edition of this print, with 3 colors in the title cartouche.

More about this print: Cheerful faces are unusual in Hiroshige's series, which is dominated by faces either too small to be seen, averted, or set with a stern demeanor. Not so with these visitors from the countryside, who have just completed a visit to the Zōjōji Temple at the upper left, one of Edo's great sights, the burial site of the Tokugawa shoguns and a training center for Buddhist priests.

Behind them is a group of novice monks, who would beg in the streets in the afternoons; their tightly ordered ranks and matched attire contrast with the laughing disarray of the rural visitors. The tourists will certainly stop next at Shiba Shinmei Shrine, the buildings to the right with the distinctive protruding roof beams and ridgepole logs.

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.