Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) (artist 1797 – 1858)
Triptych of the Great Summer Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge (Ryōgoku nōryō ōhanabi: 両国納涼大花火)
ca 1849 – 1851
29.25 in x 13.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Hiroshige ga (広重画)
Publisher: Yamadaya Shōjirō (Marks 586 - seal 01-069)
Censor seals: Fuku and Muramatsu
Harvard Art Museums (left panel)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (right panel)
Chazen Museum of Art
Van Gogh Museum - center panel
Adachi Museum of Art
Rhode Island School of Design
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art The woman in the center panel, unlike the other two accompanying her, appears to have blackened her teeth, a common social practice for married women in Edo Japan. Another indication of her role in contemporary society was that her obi is tied in the back, whereas courtesans tied theirs in the front. Notice that at the front of the boat is where the sandals are kept. Click on the image and enlarge it to see what we mean.
There is another triptych, presented quite differently from this one, by Eisen (Lyon Collection #801) in which there is a crowd of humanity out enjoying themselves on a summer night. In the right-hand panel are boats where either sandals or geta are discarded in the prow. Clearly everyone rode barefoot once they had boarded.
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Hiroshige's diamond-shaped lozenge seal in red on the right panel below his signature and in white on the left is made up of shapes which read 'hi' and 'ro'.
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Illustrated:
1) in color in Japanese Prints: Images of the Floating World, Barry Davies Oriental Art, #137, illustrated on p. 155.
2) in color, the center panel only, in the Catalogue of the Van Gogh Museum's Collection of Japanese Prints by Charlotte van Rappard-Boon, Waanders Publishing, Zwolle, Willem van Gulik and Keiko van Bremen-Ito, 1991, p. 72, #28.
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There are other copies in the Ota Memorial Museum and the Tahara City Museum.
Yamadaya Shōjirō (山田屋庄次郎) (publisher)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
Ryōgokubashi (両国橋) (genre)