• Bandō Shūka (坂東秀調 - poetry name of Bandō Mitsugorō III) standing before a view of the Benten Shrine at Shinobazu Pond at Ueno - from the series <i>Famous Views of the Eastern Capital</i> (Tōto Meisho - 東都名所)
Bandō Shūka (坂東秀調 - poetry name of Bandō Mitsugorō III) standing before a view of the Benten Shrine at Shinobazu Pond at Ueno - from the series <i>Famous Views of the Eastern Capital</i> (Tōto Meisho - 東都名所)
Bandō Shūka (坂東秀調 - poetry name of Bandō Mitsugorō III) standing before a view of the Benten Shrine at Shinobazu Pond at Ueno - from the series <i>Famous Views of the Eastern Capital</i> (Tōto Meisho - 東都名所)

Utagawa Toyokuni II (二代目歌川豊国) (artist 1777 – 1835)

Bandō Shūka (坂東秀調 - poetry name of Bandō Mitsugorō III) standing before a view of the Benten Shrine at Shinobazu Pond at Ueno - from the series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (Tōto Meisho - 東都名所)

Print


ca 1830 – 1831
9.75 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Artist's seal: toshidama gourd-shaped in red
Publisher: Ezakiya Tatsuzō (Marks 059 - seal 21-092)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Google maps - Shinobazu Pond, Tokyo
Lyon Collection - another print from this series
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan) - another print from this series - attributed to Kunisada - Sawamura Tosshō (沢村訥升) Shinobazu Pond

"...Shinobazu Pond in Ueno, is an area that was famous in Edo for its scenic beauty and that in the eighteenth century also happened to be a center of scholarly and literary publishing and print culture. The neighborhood was also known for its many established pharmacies and shops selling trend-setting handicraft items and for numerous "meet up" teahouses where clients could connect with prostitutes. [The two women in this print appear to be married by the way they are wearing their obi.] It was thus an area in which the cultured and the bawdy mingled..."

Quoted from: The Akita Ranga School and The Cultural Context in Edo Japan by Imahashi Riko, pp. 23-24.

From ca. 1830, and a few years after that, various artists - including Kuniyoshi, Toyokuni II and Kunisada - and publishers - including Ezakiya Tatsuzō, et al. - posed figures before aizuri-e backgrounds. This followed the import of the new and dramatic Prussian blue pigment.

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There is another print from this series in the Lyon Collection - #1298.

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There are three other prints from the Lyon Collection which show the Benten Shrine at Shinobazu Pond at Ueno. See #s 1092, a diptych by Sadatora, #1221 by Kuniyasu and #1323 by Shunchō.
blue prints (aizuri-e - 藍摺絵) (genre)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Ezakiya Tatsuzō (江崎屋辰蔵) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)
Bandō Mitsugorō III (三代目坂東三津五郎: 11/1799 to 12/1831) (actor)