Comment - Triptych depicting a busy street scene. The road is lined with shops and crowded with pedestrians and laborers. The red thatched signpost in the center tells that this is the Mitsui store. At bottom center, a young boy holds up a correctly bridled Edo kite ("Edo tako", "江戸 凧") with kanji writing on it ("Kanji kite", "ji tako", "字凧"), as his companion at right tugs on the string. A toddler on his mother's back at center is reaching for the toy kite. A samurai rides past on horseback, followed by three footmen, one carrying a trunk. A bottom left, itinerant musicians wander along, the man holding a drum while a child beside him plays the flute. The intricate tiled rooftops show the wealth of the stores.

Different kinds of Mitsui enterprises have been depicted in kite woodblock prints by Hokusai, Hiroshige-III and Kuniyoshi  himself (see above).


Series - ~


Artist - see Biography


Signature -  Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎国芳画) on all three panels


Publisher -  Mori-ya Jihei ( 森屋冶兵衛), seal under circular blockcutters mark on every panel


Image Size - 36.5 x  74.9 cm   (14 3/8" x 29 1/2")


Condition - trypich, attached at the seams; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical ôban (ôban tate-e);