print
- Museum number
- 1923,0515,0.3
- Title
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Object: Soshu Shichirigahama 相州七里濱 (Shichirigahama Beach, Sagami Province)
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Series: Honcho meisho 本朝名所 (Famous Places in Japan)
- Description
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Colour woodblock oban print. Shore at Shichirigahama, past side of hill rising up in foreground; children pointing at tourist in palanquin; island of Enoshima separated from shore by high tide; Mt Fuji on far horizon across Sagami Bay. Inscribed, signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1832 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Height: 25.10 centimetres
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Width: 37.60 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 2001
Past the side of a hill that rises up in the foreground can be seen part of the long, curving stretch of the shore at Shichiri-ga-hama ('Seven League Beach') with children pointing at a tourist in the palanquin who has been brought to admire this beauty spot. The island of Enoshima is separated by high tide from the shore and on the far horizon across Sagami Bay is Mt Fuji. Hiroshige's composition can be compared with similar views by Shunsho (cat. 38), Kiyonaga (cat. 39) and Shiba Kokan (fig. 5, p. 16), but here particularly effective use is made in the sky and waves of the newly adopted Berlin blue pigment that was already such a feature of Hokusai's 'Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji' (Cats 45-70; see also p. 45).
This was probably only Hiroshige's second major landscape series, following on from the 'Views of Edo' ('Toto meisho', the so-called 'Ichiyusai signature' series) of about 1831. From this year, 1832, the artist seems to have changed his 'go' from Ichiyusai to Ichiryusai. After three designs were issued by the newly established firm of Fujiokaya, for some reason publication of 'Famous Places in Japan' was suspended until the period c. 1837-9, when an additional twelve designs were added (All known designs from the series are reproduced in MSU, vol. 12,1992, nos 19-33). The intent seems to have been to cover many different parts of the country, but the first three designs were of places quite close to Edo - Enoshima, near Kamakura and the Fuji River on the Tokaido Highway (cat. 72). Both this design and the one of Iwaya cave on Enoshima feature curiously frozen breaking waves that seem to have learned nothing from the vital example of Hokusai's 'Great Wave' (cat. 52).
Literature:
'Hizo ukiyo-e taikan'. vol. 3, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1988, no. 68 (commentary by Kobayashi Tadashi).
'Meihin soroimono ukiyo-e'. vol. 12, Tokyo, Gyosei, 1992, no. 20 (commentary by Yamaguchi Keisaburo).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2001, 11 May-29 Jul, BM Japanese Galleries, '100 Views of Mount Fuji'
- Acquisition date
- 1923
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1923,0515,0.3
