Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
View of Mishima (Mishima no zu - 三嶋之図) from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi - 東海道五十三次之内)
1833
9.2" x 12.6" (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: ōju Kunisada (応需国貞)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Lyon Collection - another copy, but this one was published by Moriya Jihei
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - both Moriya Jihei and Sanoya Kihei's seals appear on this print
National Diet Library
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Honolulu Museum of Art
British Museum - Hiroshige's 'Mishima asa giri'
Mt. Fuji and Princess Kagiya Museum
Virginia Museum of Fine Art
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr
The Spencer Museum of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Mishima City Local Museum (via Cultural Heritage Online) This is number twelve in the series. The curatorial files at the X say: "When it comes to the representation in the background, Kunisada stuck very closely to Hiroshige's example. In the foreground a woman in a splendid red cloak (uchikake) with various floral motifs (irises, chrysanthemums, carnations, peonies, ...) falling in a circle on a futon. She wears a yellow kimono underneath. Next to her is a lacquer writing desk with several books and small boxes. On the desk is a pile of paper with a paperweight in the shape of a turtle (kame) on it."
There is another copy of this print in the Lyon Collection. (See the link above.) That one was published by Moriya Jihei, unlike this one which was published by Sanoya Kihei.
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In Tokaido Landscapes: The Path from Hiroshige to Contemporary Artists, 2011, 12, p. 24, speaking of the original Hiroshige print it says in a text by Sasaki Moritoshi: "The torii gate of the shrine of Mishima Myōjin (now Mishima Taisha) appears in silhouette. A group leaves the Mishima station early in the morning, heading for the Hakone Pass. As indicated in the subtitle, morning mist envelops the houses in the background and the three travelers on the left. Normally, in ukiyo-e prints, the outlines of objects are first printed in black and colors are added with additional blocks. But this print employs a novel method: no outlines are used for the objects in the background, which are represented solely by the planes of color."
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Illustrated in color in Kunisada's Tōkaidō: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, p. 65, #T24-12.
In a description of the original Hiroshige print of this scene in the catalogue of the Michener Collection it says: "A sense of melancholy pervades the a station Mishima in morning mist. The figure of a man on horseback wearing a hat is isolated from his servants and fellow travelers. His bundled manner suggests that he is shivering in the early morning cold. The group, which along with travelers on foot and horse includes one in a palanquin, is passing by the torii gate of Mishima Shrine. The background is silhouetted tones of ai blue and grey. Mishima Shrine was sacred to samurai during the Kamakura period (1185-1333). It was at this shrine that Yoritomo decided on a course of action that would inaugurate a seven-century rule of the shogunate."
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The origin of the name of Mishima is given in Tōkaidō Texts and Tales: Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada on page 62. It is from a translation of the title-fan cartouche. "The deity Ōyamatsumi-no-mikoto was enshrined here in the fifth year of Tenpyō (733) and is worshipped under the name Mishima Myōjin, when the station of Mishima derives its name. Ōyamatsumi is known as the deity of rain, and poems offered to him by Nōin Hōshi praying for rain, and by Mitsuhiro praying for the ceasing of rain, have proved efficacious. The shrine is indeed magnificent, and its sacred precincts tower into the sky. Ever since Ōyamatsumi's enshrinement here more than one thousand years ago people have continued to revere his divine grace."
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In Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts Yoko Woodson wrote on page 174 about the apparent chill of the morning air in the Hiroshige print. Even the groom for the horse has wrapped himself in a straw mat.
Woodson also notes that the shrine at Mishima is the place where in 1180 that Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) swore to defeat the Taira clan.
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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 65, T24-12.
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (author)
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)