Signed: Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ga; Publisher: Edo Kyōbashi, Ginza yon-chōme, Kawaguchi Shōzō; censor’s seal: kiwame; ōban, yoko-e, 23.7 x 38.0 cm; nishiki-e with ichimonji-bokashi

From “Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Edo)”. In his earliest landscape series, Hiroshige broke with traditional modes of depiction in ukiyo-e, and oriented his work much more on the painting of the Shijō school. This expanded the compositorial repertoire of the printers, while Hiroshige succeeded in breathing new life into woodblock prints by employing special effects such as shadows and colour shading. The printers were thus able to again demonstrate their full abilities, which were a decisive factor for a print’s success.

N. Chaikin, Tolochenaz (February 1966)
Riese Collection #138

In his earliest landscape series, Hiroshige not only departed from conventional ukiyo-e subject matter, and the conventions that earlier artists had developed for the composition of landscapes, but he used a technique of drawing which owed a great deal to Shijō style painting, enlarging the repertoire of the engravers, and he made extensive use of effects of shading and blending large expanses of colour, enliving the printed craft. One reason for Hiroshige’s remarkable success may have been that he was able to breathe a new life into the medium of the woodblock print and rekindle the skill and excellence of the craftsmen on which the success of the art always depended.
Yoshida singles out in is a pleasure to note that of the four prints that for special praise in his note on the series in Ukiyo-e Jiten, vol. 1, p. 55, three are in this collection.
Reproduced in Ingelheim catalogue, no, 121a.