#2 Shinagawa no zu (Picture of Shinagawa), Utagawa Kunisada

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Utagawa Kunisada, #2 Shinagawa no zu (Picture of Shinagawa)
Utagawa Kunisada, #2 Shinagawa no zu (Picture of Shinagawa)
Utagawa Kunisada
#2 Shinagawa no zu (Picture of Shinagawa)
circa 1838, Edo period (1600–1868)
Utagawa Kunisada
1786–1864
#2 Shinagawa no zu (Picture of Shinagawa), circa 1838, Edo period (1600–1868)
Portfolio/Series title: 東海道五拾三次之内 Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi (The 53 Stations of the Tokaido)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: color woodcut
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 252 x 178 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 252 x 178 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 9 15/16 x 7 1/2 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Lucy Shaw Schultz Fund
Accession number: 1998.0883
Not on display
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Exhibition Label: Installation related to "Tokyo: The Imperial Capital Woodblock prints by Koizumi Kishio, 1928-1940," Feb-2005, Hillary Pedersen Kunisada created his own version of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō by including one of his signature beautiful women in front of each famous landscape scene. This view of Shinagawa is appropriated from Hiroshige’s print, with the same procession walking along a shop-lined streed at dawn. Kunisada has added an elaborately dressed courtesan in front of the scene, who seems to ride on a puff of golden clouds. She stands next to a charcoal brazier and adjusts her kimono, as if readying herself for the customers along the road; her placement in the cloudy foreground detaches her from the rest of the scene, however, and her lavish appearance contrasts with the more rustic setting of the scene. Her presence alludes to the role of Shinagawa as a well-known brothel area.