Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
View of Fujikawa (Fujikawa no zu: 藤川ノ図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi: 東海道五十三次之内)
Signed: ōju Kunisada ga (応需国貞画)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Diet Library
Spencer Museum of Art
British Museum - Hiroshige's 'Fujikawa bobana no zu (Boundary Marker at Fujikawa)' version
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr
Honolulu Museum of Art
Hokkaido Museum of Art
Palmer Museum of Art, Penn. State
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the University of California This print is number 38 in the series. With the exception of the woman who appears to be carrying her laundry Kunisada has stayed close to Hiroshige's template.
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In Tokaido Landscapes: The Path from Hiroshige to Contemporary Artists, 2011, #38, p. 50, speaking of the original Hiroshige print it says in a text by Sasaki Moritoshi: "A procession with horses arrives at the edge of a post town. This has been interpreted to be a procession to transport the horses, a gift from the shogunal government in Edo, to the imperial court in Kyoto; the gift was an annual ceremony that took place on August 1. Two officials from the station, wearing formal kimonos, have come out to greet the procession; a traveler has removed his straw hat and joined them in bowing to the procession. It is a ceremonious moment, but one of the officials seems to be distracted by the puppies playing nearby. As in the Nihonbashi, the dogs relieve some of the tension of human society and provide a heartwarming touch." The dogs do not appear in the Kunisada version shown here.
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Illustrated in a small color reproduction in Kunisada's Tokaido: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 72, T24-38.
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (author)