color woodcut, ink, paper, 39.5x18 cm, artist's signature, bird feather embossing
A beautiful design by Hiroshige kacho-e, specifically a white heron flying over flowering Japanese irises on the shore of a pond. The bird's feathers are detailed and delicately embossed, showing its varied plumage. The refined shape of the iris flowers is achieved here by using the musen-zuri technique, which is printing without using a black outline.
The poem above reads:
When the white heron descends on the field
Is like a thousand snowflakes
When a yellow willow tree flies up a tree
it's like a flower has just bloomed.
(Translated by Anna Król, Hiroshige 2023, Manggha Publishing House, Krakow 2023, p. 65)
This beautiful reissue of the design comes from the famous Tokyo publisher Adachi, one of the most respected publishers of the 20th century. Adachi's woodcuts were printed to the highest quality standards, with excellent color and fine detail. Adachi's woodblock printers were known as the best in the industry. The Adachi Group also selected interesting and diverse subjects for its prints and was the sole publisher of many famous old ukiyo-e paintings.
Hiroshige Andō, also known as Hiroshige Utagawa, is one of Japan's best-known painters and printmakers. His father, Andō Genuemon, was a low-ranking samurai and fire brigade officer. From the age of sixteen, Hiroshige studied in the studio of Utagawa Toyohira, under whose tutelage he developed his skills and talent. Young Hiroshige soaked up the artistic atmosphere while helping in the daily life of his father's brigade. It wasn't until he was 27 that he fully decided to follow the path of artistic creation. After his teacher's death in 1822, he was offered to take over the studio after his master, but Hiroshige declined the offer and set his sights on independence. Hiroshige's artistic output has not been fully catalogued to this day, but it is estimated that some 5,000 works were created, primarily in the color woodcut technique. He began his career with portraits of beautiful women (bijin-ga) and images of kabuki actors (yakusha-e), but after the death of his teacher he focused primarily on native landscapes. Hiroshige came from a samurai family, however, he identified with bourgeois Edo culture. He became primarily known as the creator of landscape series such as Fifty-three Stations on the TōkaidōRoad (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi), One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei) and Sixty-nine Stations on the Kisokaidō Road(Kisokaidō rokujūkyū tsugi no uchi). He masterfully depicted the landscape at different times of the year and day, and was interested in weather phenomena. He experimented with effects and composition and used unconventional shortcuts. A unique element in his works is the depiction of atmospheric phenomena such as snowfall or rainfall, as well as gales and storms. On the other hand, he was interested in the phenomenon of shadow and its effect both in the landscape and domestic interiors.
