Ukiyo-e in Autumn -Enjoy colors of cerebrated season -

Utagawa Hiroshige One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Tekona Shrine of Mama and Tsugihashi Bridge

Hiroshige's prints with autumn leaves expressed with vivid orange colors. This orange color is printed with "Tan" pigment made from minerals. The orange of "Tan" was not commonly used because of its strong presence, however Hiroshige had no problem using it as an autumn color! Beautiful!

歌川広重「名所江戸百景 浅草田甫酉の町詣」アダチ版復刻浮世絵

Utagawa Hiroshige One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Asakusa Paddy Field and Torinoichi

Torinoichi market is a traditional annual event in November on the day of the rooster in Chinese zodiac calendar. It started about 400 years ago as a harvest festival. A speciality of this market is "bamboo rake charm" wishing collecting a lot of luck with this rake. Hiroshige depicted people coming home after visiting this market in his popular work,"Asakusa Paddy Field and Torinoichi". In the distance he depicts the line of people carrying the decorative rakes. Only a cat is watching them. Very pretty work!

Utagawa Hiroshige Eight Views of Omi

Evening Grow at Seta

Utagawa Hiroshige Eight Views of the Environs of Edo

Descending Geese at Haneda

葛飾北斎「菊に虻」アダチ版復刻浮世絵

Katsushika Hokusai

Chrysanthemums and a Deerfly

Hokusai depicts some chrysanthemums accurately and lively against a light blue background. He shows the air with depicting horsefly which tries to fly stably.

葛飾北斎「桔梗に蜻蛉」アダチ版復刻浮世絵

Katsushika Hokusai

Bellflower and Dragon-fly

This print depicts the Chinese bellflower (kikyo; Platycodon grandiflower) and a dragon fly against a warm yellow background.Like another Hokusai’s masterpiece of flowers and birds, “the Tree-peony and Butterfly”, only the top part of the plant, with its lush leaves and flowers, is rendered. Even though Hokusai does not show the entire plant, he carefully observes the bellflower in a naturalistic manner, at a moment when it responds to a slight change in the air, offering a place for a red-bodied dragonfly to alight.