Hiroshige | e-Sugoroku (Board Game): Pilgrimage to Ise and Journey to Kyoto
歌川広重 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
参宫上京道中一览双六
e-Sugoroku(Board Game): Pilgrimage to Ise and Journey to Kyoto
1852
木版画 | 75cm x 75cm
Woodblock | 75cm x 75cm
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition, with full margins and rich reds and purples. It appears to never have been played.
$5,500
e-Sugoroku were a type of board game popular with adults and children in Edo-era Japan that were similar to today’s “Chutes and Ladders.” Basically, you roll the dice and let fate move you forward. Maybe you land on a space that comes with a reward or boosts you ahead (ladder) or maybe you land on one that sends you tumbling back down (chute). There were all kinds of these games, produced with woodblocks, in many genres, including warriors, topography and even eroticism. (Those were for grownups.)
The printing quality of e-Sugoroku was generally not very high. After all, they were less produced for their elegant aesthetics than for their functionality and use. And being used damaged them – imagine the angry player who gets sent back to the beginning smashing down his or her piece in frustration.
But this wonderful e-Sugoroku by Hiroshige is an exception. To begin with, the printing is intricate, precise and pristine, with first-to-fade purples and yellows still strong, and wonderful bokashi. And it was almost certainly never played.
The game involves a journey along the Tokaido highway to Ise Shrine and then on to Kyoto. The exact rules are hard to divine, but Hiroshige came up with a wonderful solution to fitting the entire journey on four oban tate-e sheets. He basically turns the relatively straight, Point A-to-Point B Tokaido back on itself, surreally altering the topography of Japan.
For those who couldn’t make the trip, or those who had memories of it, this was a way to virtually experience it – just watch out for those chutes.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
歌川広重 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
参宫上京道中一览双六
e-Sugoroku(Board Game): Pilgrimage to Ise and Journey to Kyoto
1852
木版画 | 75cm x 75cm
Woodblock | 75cm x 75cm
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition, with full margins and rich reds and purples. It appears to never have been played.
$5,500
e-Sugoroku were a type of board game popular with adults and children in Edo-era Japan that were similar to today’s “Chutes and Ladders.” Basically, you roll the dice and let fate move you forward. Maybe you land on a space that comes with a reward or boosts you ahead (ladder) or maybe you land on one that sends you tumbling back down (chute). There were all kinds of these games, produced with woodblocks, in many genres, including warriors, topography and even eroticism. (Those were for grownups.)
The printing quality of e-Sugoroku was generally not very high. After all, they were less produced for their elegant aesthetics than for their functionality and use. And being used damaged them – imagine the angry player who gets sent back to the beginning smashing down his or her piece in frustration.
But this wonderful e-Sugoroku by Hiroshige is an exception. To begin with, the printing is intricate, precise and pristine, with first-to-fade purples and yellows still strong, and wonderful bokashi. And it was almost certainly never played.
The game involves a journey along the Tokaido highway to Ise Shrine and then on to Kyoto. The exact rules are hard to divine, but Hiroshige came up with a wonderful solution to fitting the entire journey on four oban tate-e sheets. He basically turns the relatively straight, Point A-to-Point B Tokaido back on itself, surreally altering the topography of Japan.
For those who couldn’t make the trip, or those who had memories of it, this was a way to virtually experience it – just watch out for those chutes.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
歌川広重 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
参宫上京道中一览双六
e-Sugoroku(Board Game): Pilgrimage to Ise and Journey to Kyoto
1852
木版画 | 75cm x 75cm
Woodblock | 75cm x 75cm
早期版次；颜色鲜艳；品相非常好
Fine impression, color and condition, with full margins and rich reds and purples. It appears to never have been played.
$5,500
e-Sugoroku were a type of board game popular with adults and children in Edo-era Japan that were similar to today’s “Chutes and Ladders.” Basically, you roll the dice and let fate move you forward. Maybe you land on a space that comes with a reward or boosts you ahead (ladder) or maybe you land on one that sends you tumbling back down (chute). There were all kinds of these games, produced with woodblocks, in many genres, including warriors, topography and even eroticism. (Those were for grownups.)
The printing quality of e-Sugoroku was generally not very high. After all, they were less produced for their elegant aesthetics than for their functionality and use. And being used damaged them – imagine the angry player who gets sent back to the beginning smashing down his or her piece in frustration.
But this wonderful e-Sugoroku by Hiroshige is an exception. To begin with, the printing is intricate, precise and pristine, with first-to-fade purples and yellows still strong, and wonderful bokashi. And it was almost certainly never played.
The game involves a journey along the Tokaido highway to Ise Shrine and then on to Kyoto. The exact rules are hard to divine, but Hiroshige came up with a wonderful solution to fitting the entire journey on four oban tate-e sheets. He basically turns the relatively straight, Point A-to-Point B Tokaido back on itself, surreally altering the topography of Japan.
For those who couldn’t make the trip, or those who had memories of it, this was a way to virtually experience it – just watch out for those chutes.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Ando Hiroshige (1897-1858) revolutionized the art of landscape prints during the Edo era, building on the success of his senior, Hokusai, but taking a more poetic and naturalist approach to portraying the beauty of Japan.
The son of a low-level Samurai assigned to the fire brigade in Edo, Hiroshige became a student of the Utagawa school as a young man. His first prints focused on beautiful women (bijin), and views of Edo. But in 1833 he began work on his most famous early work, his first series depicting the Tokaido, the "Great Sea Road" between Edo and Tokyo.
Today there is some controversy about this series. Initially, it was believed that Hiroshige had travelled the route along with a local lord (Daimyo) who was making a gift of horses to the Emperor. But more recent scholarship suggests Hiroshige never travelled the road himself, at least not the entire way, and made his designs using published guidebooks.
Nonetheless, the prints were wonderful and revolutionary. They embraced the seasons with a gentle lyricism missing from Hokusai's striking but stylized depictions. In Hiroshige's work, nature is sacred -- but it is always mixed with humanity, with travelers or little inns or bridges. There is a magical harmony between man and the elements.
His depiction of the seasons and weather is especially evocative. Snow blankets some views with a hushed silence, while rain streaks down furiously in others. In some prints natured is agitated; in others, calm prevails. Produced in a horizontal oban yoko-e format, the series was a smash hit.
The Tokaido series made Hiroshige famous, and he became incredible prolific. In the 1840s he produced many strong designs, but many mediocre ones, too, including several subsequent Tokaido series of varying quality.
In 1853, however, he made a big step. He turned his landscapes sideways, embracing a bold vertical oban tate-e format. This gave his designs new energy and a modern feel. The first of these was Famous Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces. From them on, most of his most noted series were executed in this format.
He saved his greatest for his last. In 1856 he began work on 100 Famous Views of Edo, which many consider his most exceptional work. Here his home city was portrayed with energy and passion, and in these 119 designs he created an incredible record of a vanished place. In addition to the striking vertical format, he developed exciting new compositions, often juxtaposing a strong foreground element with a distant background.
Among the many famous images in this series are Squall at Ohashi and the Plum Garden in Komeido. Both of these were copied by Vincent Van Gogh, a great admirer of Hiroshige. Thus, the great Japanese artist had a profound effect on Western art.
Alas, his beloved Edo ended his life. Hiroshige was claimed by a cholera epidemic that swept the city in 1958. His pupil Shigenobu, who took the name Hiroshige II, completed The Famous Views of Edo.