Nishiki-e. Color woodcut, signed on the plate: Hiroshige hitsu
Series: Meisho Edo Hyakkei The Hundred Views of Edo n. 97
Date: 1856, seventh month
Format: oban tate-e (mm. 356x230)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi.
Censor: aratame, Dragon 7
Beautiful proof with excellent colors. Printed on Japanese paper, datable to the second half of the 19th century. In perfect condition except for a slight central vertical fold. With good margins all around beyond the marginal line.
The green matrix of the pines is from re-engraved wood.
Bibliography:
AA.VV., Ukiyo-e shûka, Sogakkan, Tokyo Vol.14 (1981), Hiroshige list, p. 250, ôban n.62.18.
Memorial Cat.221. Sakai Gankow, Hiroshige Edo Fukei Tokyo,1996, list #12.28, pls. 173-174
Henry D. Smith, Amy G. Poster, Hiroshige, One hundred views , Braziller, NewYork, 1986 n. 97.
Edward F. Strange, Meisho Edo hyakkei, n.96, Basil Stewart n.97. Genshoku ukiyo-e dai hyakka jiten, 5 (1980).
Museum of Fine Art Boston: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/238058
Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/196719/the-five-pines-on-the-onagi-river-onagigawa-gohonmatsu-from-the-series-one-hundred-famous-views-of-edo-meisho-edo-hyakkei
The "Five Pines" and the Onagigawa Canal.
The branches of an old pine tree supported by poles suddenly emerge from the left into the field of the image.
The curious structure of the branches forms a three-dimensional lattice. The tree is a famous attraction of the place, known as the "Five Pines" (Cohonmatsu)
The boat loaded with all sorts of parcels, on which some passengers are resting from the day's toil, is a scenic element that Hiroshige seems to have taken from Hokusai's work Ryogokubashi (from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji).