Series of Poems Set to
the Koto
(Koto no kumiuta zukushi,
琴の組歌つくし)
Publisher: Eshima
c. 1840
This series of prints is listed as number 97 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961). They are each about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters), a size known as ôban. I am grateful to Ward Pieters for assisting with this series. |
|
Title: Description: Beauty
standing on balcony looking out at the rain |
|
Title: The bridge at
Uji (Uji no bashi) Description: Beauty
watching a distant storm over the bridge |
|
Title: Description: Beauty and
girl picking flowers |
|
This image differs from the above in having a gourd-shaped seal
in the bottom center. This is probably
the seal of a secondary publisher that bought the woodblocks from Eshima. |
|
Title: Description: Beauty and
small boy listening to a cuckoo |
|
This is another version of the above print. It is a less labor-intensive printing than
the above, which almost invariably means a later edition. In this print, the delicate shading (bokashi) in the child’s clothing was
omitted. Bokashi was achieved by hand applying a gradation of ink to the
wooden printing block rather than inking the block uniformly. This hand-application had to be repeated
for each sheet of paper that was printed. |
|
Title: Description: Two beauties
playing with children, one of whom has an origami
crane |
‘Robinson’
indicates listing in Kuniyoshi by
Basil William Robinson, 1961, CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO MAIN PAGE
|