Page 81 - September 21 2021 Important Japanese Art Christie's NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE SPRINGFIELD MUSEUMS
(LOTS 24-83)

74 UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI (1797-1861)

Sashu Tsukahara setchu
(Nichiren in the snow at

Tsukahara on Sado Island)

Woodblock print, from the series Koso
goichidai ryakuzu (Sketches of the life of the
Great Priest), signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi hitsu,
published by Iseya Rihei (Kinjudo), circa 1830-
35
Horizontal oban: 9¿ x 14¡ in. (23.2 x 36.5 cm.)

$10,000-15,000

PROVENANCE:
Raymond A. Bidwell (1876-1954), Springfield,
Massachusetts
Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), Paris

EXHIBITED:
Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Portland, Maine, 25
February-9 April, 1989
“Utagawa Kuniyoshi”, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts,
Springfield, Massachusetts, 1980, exh. cat. pl. 32
“Exhibition of Ukiyo-e by Utagawa Kuniyoshi”, Riccar
Art Museum, Tokyo, 23 November-24 December, 1978,
exh. cat. pl. 184

LITERATURE:
The Raymond A. Bidwell Collection of Prints by Utagawa
Kuniyoshi (Massachusetts: The Raymond A. Bidwell and
Bertha U. Bidwell Fund, 1968), pl. 17.

A solitary figure bracing himself against the wind, trudges
up an exposed, snow-covered mountain slope near Tsukahara
on Sado island. Snow falls thickly from a dark sky. This is
Nichiren, sent into exile by the regent Hojo Tokimune in
1271. It is believed that this print must have been very popular
during Kuniyoshi’s lifetime and it remains one of Kuniyoshi’s
best-known designs.
Although there is debate surrounding the many editions of this
print and which should be considered the first, it is generally
believed that prints without the horizon line (as with the print
offered here) are indicative of the first edition.