UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE: ABALONE, NEEDLEFISH, AND PEACH BLOSSOMS

By Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797–1858), signed Ichiryusai Hiroshige ga
Japan, circa 1832-1833

Color woodblock print on paper. Horizontal oban. Signed Ichiryusai Hiroshige ga, censor’s seal: kiwame; publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi. Title Abalone, Needlefish, and Peach Blossoms (Awabi, sayori, momo), from the untitled series known as Uozukushi (Large Fish).

Depicting two large abalones, a Japanese halfbeak, and a branch of peach blossoms.

Inscriptions: Inscribed with three poems. The first by Kumogaki Fujimi: ‘Nami ni arai/ iso no iwao ni/ suritsukete/ awabi wa onoga/ tama o migakeri’ [‘Securely fastened to the large boulders offshore and washed by the waves, every abalone is polishing each its own pearl’]. The second by Miwagaki Amaki: ‘Kondate no/ awase sayori mo/ koromogae/ tsuma o nukite so/ koshiraenikeru’ [‘The pair of halfbeaks on the menu have both had the stuffing taken out of them, like robes remade for the first day of summer’]. The third by Chiyogaki Sunao: ‘Kore mo mata/ chiisateneramu/ iwa ai no/ hosoki sukima no/ awabi toru ama’ [‘He, too, probably has to be on the small side, the ocean diver who retrieves abalone from the crannies between rocks’].

SIZE of the sheet 25.5 x 37.5 cm

Condition: Good condition with wear, fading to colors, and browning to paper. Some soiling and minor creasing.

The chromatic contrast achieved through the discerning juxtaposition of the blue of the fish, commonly known as a halfbeak (sayori), and the two abalones (awabi) with the intense pink of the peach blossoms gives the image a sense of vitality rather than stillness or death. The image transmits a Shinto feeling of oneness with nature that transforms the events of life, including death, into events of greater universal meaning, thus stripping them of their drama.

The first edition of this series was privately issued in the form of a kyoka [mad verse] poetry album in the orihon format, with ten illustrated sheets and four sheets of text only. The blocks were shortly after reused for commercial publication, with the publisher's mark and censor's kiwame seal added, as in the present example. In a few cases, the original poems were interchanged for different ones. One additional design, the trout, was included in the commercial series; and another nine designs were added still later by a different publisher.

Utagawa Hiroshige (also referred to as Ando Hiroshige) is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, having created 8,000 prints of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. Much of Hiroshige’s work focuses on landscape. Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige took a softer, less formal approach with his Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833–34), completed after traveling that coastal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Hiroshige’s prolific output was somewhat due to his being paid very little per series. Still, this did not deter him, as he receded to Buddhist monkhood in 1856 to complete his brilliant and lasting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–58). He died in 1858, 10 years before Monet, Van Gogh, and many other Impressionist painters became eager collectors of Japanese art.

Museum comparison:
A closely related print by the same artist is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 11.17170.

Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related print at Sotheby’s, Japanese Woodblock Prints, 19 December 2023, London, lot 38 (sold for GBP 5,715).