Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada from Yamashita-cho  ("Benkei Moat")
(山下町日比谷外さくら田 Yamashita-chō Hibiya Soto-Sakurada)

Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
(名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei)

Uo-ya Eikichi 1918 Edition Print

Comment - A Hiroshige print, depicting a festive atmosphere on New Year's Day at outer moat of Edo Castle ("benkei" moat). In the foreground, two celebrants play battledore and shuttlecock ("Hanetsuki") by the moat. Kites fly above the city, the most prominent on the upper rim of the print is a Yakko ("yakko-dako", "奴凧") or man kite (servant kite). The background shows three Edo kites ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧") with their long tails. One Edo is hanging upside down, caught in a kite line. The Hanetsuki rack ("hagoita", 羽子板), the Kadomatsu pine, and the kites indicate a setting around New Year's Day. These pasttimes are often played during these days. Mount Fuji rises majestically in the distance. Across the Benkei Moat, running the length of the print, Hiroshige illustrates the impressive gate and front wall of a daimyo mansion, residence of daimyo Nabeshima Kansō from the Saga Domain. The Nabeshima clan (鍋島氏 Nabeshima-shi) controlled the Saga Domain from the late Sengoku period through the Edo period.

This broad, gently curving stretch of water represents a segment of the great inner moat of Edo Castle (see photo of 2012). The red-gated mansion to the upper left belonged to Ii Naosuke, one of the shogun's closest political advisers. It was along the road to the lower left that he was assassinated by a group of hot headed young loyalist samurai as he proceeded from his mansion to Edo Castle on a snowy day in early 1860.

A copy of an unknow Meiji-Era artist featuring the same scene is to be found at this link.

Another version of this successful Series, depicting about the same scene in "landscape" (horizontal) version, is to be found as "Outside Hibiya, Seen from Sukiya-gashi" (1858), from the series "Famous Places in Edo" ("Edo meisho", 江戸名所).

Reprint - These 1918 prints are from a beautiful posthumous release of HIROSHIGE's prints by the original series publisher Uo-ya Eikichi. In 1918 Uo-ya Eikichi re-released a complete set of HIROSHIGE's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" in a small edition, with prints of the highest quality rivaling those of the lifetime edition. Using only the most skilled printers and carefully matching the paper and inks to the Edo era printing, Uo-ya Eikichi used many original blocks, supplementing them when necessary by replacements. This masterwork series includes some of Hiroshige's most famous and memorable subjects.

Series - "The print is the Number 3 of the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei). Two other woodblocks from the same series, containing kites are "Kasumigaseki" and "Mount Atago in Shiba". For information about other Series of Hiroshige, refer to HIROSHIGE's "Tokaido"  and other Series.

Artist - see Biography

Signature - Hiroshige ga (広重画) lower right, red cassette

Publisher - Uoya Eikichi (魚屋 栄吉) <Sakana Sakae, 魚栄>; lower left selvage

Image Size - 21.9cm X  33.7   (8 5/8" x 13 1/4") + margins


Condition - single sheet; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical ôban; Tate-e (portrait)