Utagawa Yoshitora, “Minakuchi in ōmi Province: Scene in Morning Mist,” 1872

Artist: Utagawa Yoshitora (Japanese 1836-1887)

Title: Minakuchi in ōmi Province: Scene in Morning Mist (Asagiri no fūkei); Semimaru (近江 水口 朝き里の風景)

Series Title: Calligraphy and Pictures for the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (書画五拾三駅)

Date: 1872

Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Dimensions: 14 1/16 x 9 1/2 in. (35.7 x 24.1 cm)

Publisher: Sawamuraya Seikichi

Collection: Tom Musco Collection

In this series, Yoshitora divides each print into two parts: the upper part shows the calligraphy with an image, the lower part depicts one station from the fifty-three stations of the Tokaido.

In upper part, the inscription written in cursive calligraphy style reads: “これやこの 行くも帰るも 别れては 知るも知らぬも あふ坂の関” (So this is the place! The crowds, coming, going, meeting, parting; friends, strangers, known, unknown-Osaka Barrier) On the upper right, the sitting figure in purple kimono is identifiable as Semimaru, the author of this poem. This poem is collected in Hyakunin Isshu and its contemporary readers would be familiar with it.

In the lower part showing Minakuchi, instead of depicting a group of travelers with a landscape background as typical in similar images by Hiroshige or Kuniyoshi, Yoshitora chooses to focus on one female traveler. Dressed in a red kimono with a morning glory pattern, the woman waves her hat leftwards and leans on the stick held in her left hand. Other travelers are integrated into the dim background, shown as shadows like the trees and river under the moon. Similarly, in Yoshitora’s depictions of other stations of the Tōkaidō stations, the painter focuses more on figures than on landscapes, probably influenced by yakusha-e or bijin-ga.

Another impression of this print is in the MFA, Boston.

Bibliography:

Peter McMillan. One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Posted by Bob Chow (Zihan Zhou)

October 22, 2020