Hiroshige Vertical Tōkaidō · Shōno · Shiratori Mound ·...

歌川広重 — UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797–1858) Shōno: Ancient Site of the Shiratori Mound (庄野 白鳥塚古跡, Shōno, Shiratorizuka koseki) From: Famous Sights of the Fifty-three Stations (五十三次名所図会, Gojūsan tsugi meisho zue), known as the "Vertical Tōkaidō", No. 46 Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), polychrome (nishiki-e) on Japanese washi Date: 1855 (Ansei 2), 7th month Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō (蔦屋吉蔵, Kōeidō) Seals: censor seal aratame (改) and date seal Hare 7 (卯七) Signature: Hiroshige hitsu (広重筆) Format: Ōban tate-e, [37 × 25 cm] CONDITION The colours are fairly well preserved and the impression reads well with some fading and soiling. The paper is firm and supple. Good overall. Please check the images carefully! The Place: The White Bird Mound Shōno was the 45th post station of the Tōkaidō, in Ise Province, today's Suzuka in Mie Prefecture. The sheet is numbered 46 because the series counts Nihonbashi in Edo as number 1. The British Museum describes the design as porters of a daimyo procession resting by the road, with the burial mound rising among the rice fields. The mound is linked to Yamato Takeru, the great hero of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. On his way back from his eastern campaign he fell ill at Mount Ibuki and died at Nobono in Ise before he could reach his home in Yamato. According to legend, his spirit turned into a white bird (shiratori) and flew away. That legend gave the Shiratorizuka its name. The Shiratorizuka is a real ancient tomb mound, about 92 m long and the largest of its type in Mie Prefecture. Excavations date it to the early 5th century. In Hiroshige's time it was widely regarded as Yamato Takeru's tomb. The scholars Motoori Norinaga and Hirata Atsutane both favoured it, and the Edo guidebook Tōkaidō meisho zue presented it as his grave. In 1879 the Imperial Household Ministry assigned the tomb to a different mound at Kameyama, but the legend remains attached to the Shiratorizuka. It lies behind Kasado Shrine, which keeps as its sacred objects the hat and staff that Yamato Takeru is said to have carried until his death. The Series: The Vertical Tōkaidō Hiroshige designed this series in 1855 for the publisher Tsutaya Kichizō. It has 55 sheets: one for each of the 53 stations, plus the start at Nihonbashi in Edo and the end in Kyoto. Unlike his famous horizontal Tōkaidō series of the 1830s, it uses the upright ōban format, which he was using at the same time for One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Many designs show the landscape from a raised viewpoint and are based on illustrations in the guidebook Tōkaidō meisho zue (1797). Instead of only showing the station itself, Hiroshige often picks a famous site nearby, as he does here with the Shiratori Mound. Impressions of this design are held by the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Tokyo National Museum.

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