Antique Japanese Print Meiji – Utagawa Hiroshige I – Noji River, Ōmi Province – Six Jewel Rivers from Various Provinces – 1891

Traditional Ukiyo-e print, posthumous late edition (Meiji), woodcut. [This print is not a modern reproduction]

Print type: Fūkei-ga 風景画, Japanese landscape ukiyo-e

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige I 歌川広重 signed 広重画 Hiroshige ga

Edition: Official Meiji edition from re-engraved blocks based on the original edition by Inoue Kichijirō 井上吉次郎, August 1891

Marginal note: 初代一立齋廣重翁筆原画 Shodai Ichiryūsai Hiroshige ō hitsu genga
Based on the original drawing by the first Hiroshige, Ichiryūsai Hiroshige.

Series title: 諸國六玉川 Shokoku Mu Tamagawa
The Six Jewel Rivers of various provinces

Print title: 近江 野路 Ōmi Noji
The Jewel River of Noji, in Ōmi Province

Original print edition: 1857, 11th month, by Maruya Kyūshirō 丸屋久四郎

Origin: Japan, discovered in Kanagawa Prefecture

About the artist:

Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797-1858) is one of the greatest masters of Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Famous for his poetic landscapes, his views of roads, provinces and famous places, he profoundly influenced the history of Japanese art. His compositions are distinguished by their sense of atmosphere, the delicacy of the seasons, the effects of rain, snow, mist or moon, and a unique way of transforming a landscape into emotion.

Subject:

This print is an authentic Meiji edition from 1891, made by Inoue Kichijirō, based on Hiroshige I's original work published in 1857. The marginal note indicates that the image reproduces the original drawing by the first Ichiryūsai Hiroshige, with re-engraved blocks from the Meiji era.

This print depicts Ōmi Noji, the jewel river of Noji, in the former Ōmi province. It belongs to the series Shokoku Mu Tamagawa, dedicated to the Six Jewel Rivers (Tama). The "Six Tama Rivers" are six famous poetic places in ancient Japan, associated with the word tama — "jewel" — and celebrated in classical poetry for their natural beauty, seasons, and reflections.

The scene shows a landscape of great softness: a clear river, banks adorned with hagi — Japanese lespedeza —, pine trees, distant mountains, and a group of Japanese nobles contemplating the water. In the foreground, the moon seems to float on the surface of the river, in a calm and almost suspended atmosphere.

The waka poem inscribed in the sky is by Minamoto no Shunrai and comes from the Senzai Wakashū 千載和歌集:

明日も来む / 野路の玉川 / 萩こえて / 色なる波に / 月宿りけり

“I will surely return tomorrow!
To this Tama River of Noji...
Where the moon has come to rest its reflections
In the colored waves by the lespedeza, hagi, flowers that overhang it.”

Condition:

Authentic old print in good general condition. Colors still vibrant. Old paper with traces of time, small creases, slight soiling. Full margins.

🦝 Our opinion:

A very beautiful authentic Japanese print by the great master Utagawa Ando Hiroshige I, in a Meiji edition from 1891 by Inoue Kichijirō. We love its vertical format, its lunar atmosphere, the Tama River of Noji, the hagi flowers, and the poetic softness of the landscape!

This is not an original edition by the great master, but a posthumous late Meiji edition, a true antique of over 135 years! It's the perfect balance between an often inaccessible original Hiroshige print and a more modern reproduction!

Discover all our authentic prints in our collection of Japanese prints.