Pictures, 3: Japanese prints

 Kawamura Bunpo 河村文鳳, 1779-1821 (attr.), Three pages from a sketchbook

Ink drawing on rice paper with portions colored in gray and green ink; human figures engaged in various everyday activities.

Purchased from Kimura Gallery, San Francisco, California, ca. 1990

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重, 1797-1858, Tōkaidō series, "Arai," woodblock print

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次, Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi), first published in the Hōeidō edition (1833–34), was created by Hiroshige after his first travels along the Tōkaidō in 1832. "Arai" was the thirty-first station and the thirty-second picture in the series of fifty-five pictures. 

Around 1905, Jane Stanford, the widow of Leland Stanford, and founder with her husband of Stanford University, took a steamship tour of East Asia. She was accompanied by one of her nieces, who survived until the 1970s. While in Japan, the niece purchased this and the next item. There is no way of determining when these particular impressions were made from Hiroshige's woodblocks. I purchased this and the next item in the late 1970s from the Town and Country Gallery in Palo Alto, California. Unfortunately there is a tear in the paper sheet near the center of the picture.

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重, 1797-1858, "Shinagawa," woodblock print

This is from a series of famous views.

See previous entry.

Anonymous, four ink drawings from a sketchbook

These are four pages from a sketchbook, grouped in pairs, each pair of pages glued together to form one sheet for framing.

Purchased from the Kimura Gallery in San Francisco, Californnia, 1 October 1987.

Tanaka Ryohei, 1933-2019, "Inakaya" (Farmhouse), etching, 1986

Etching, signed in pencil, "T. Ryohei '86" on the lower left; numbered 111/150 on the lower left.

Purchased at Kabutoya Galleries, San Francisco, California, 1987.