100 Views of Edo # 45 Deluxe 1st Edition by Ando Hiroshige

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

Woodblock Print Title: Yatsumi Bridge (Yatsumi no hashi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)

1st Publication: August 1856

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

Date of this edition: August 1856

Publisher: Uoya Eikichi

Condition: Trimmed to the margins on the lower, upper and left side of the print, affecting the seals. Very good colors and impression.

Notes: This is a rare Deluxe first 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.

More about this print: Although Yatsumi Bridge literally means "Eight-View Bridge," a more accurate translation would be "Eight-Bridge View" since from it one could see eight different bridges, including Yatsumi itself, on which the viewer is standing. This bridge was one of the busiest in Edo and joined the mouth of the Nihonbashi River with the outer moat of Edo Castle. So heavily traveled was the bridge that its southern approach served as the site of a stone post on which notices of lost children were pasted. The only allusion to this bustling site in an otherwise placid scene is the two parasols moving along at the lower left.

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.