Item from the Mokuhankan Flea Market

Ayu (Sweetfish in River Tama)

Size: 0.0cm by 0.0cm (0.00 in by 0.00 in) | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [L] ?

Designer: Ando Hiroshige

Era: Post-war | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: ¥ 12,000$ 91.00£ 71.75€ 86.25 [Item has been sold]

Description: This print is from a set of reproductions of 25 of Hiroshige's lesser-known prints, given the English title "Rare Publication: Selected Works by Hiroshige" by the publisher, O-Edo Mokuhansha.

A horizontal ōban of five ayu (Japanese smelt) from Hiroshige's "A Collection of Fish" (Uo Zukushi) series of prints probably originally produced by Eijudo in the 1830s.

The poem in the upper section of the print reads, "Even when autumn rains are falling, it swims in the shadow of the water and one doesn't see rust: the trout of the Crystal River" (translation by Matthi Forrer, "The Baur Collection, Geneva: Japanese Prints, Volume 2", p. 535). Forrer adds, "The 'rust' alludes to sabiayu, literally 'rust-trout', a red trout laying eggs in autumn. The popularity of these designs of various fish by Hiroshige must have been considerable. Many variations in subsequent impressions can be noticed, often to the effect that the production became less costly. Therefore refinements in the early impressions were omitted, even to the extent that colour blocks came to be discarded".

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