Comment - The woodblock "Kakegawa
Station" (掛川之図) shows a landscape from Kunisada's 'Bijin
Tokaido' series. Kakegawa-juku was originally the castle town
of Kakegawa Castle. It was famous because Lord of Tosa
(Yamauchi Kazutoyo) rebuilt the area and lived there himself.
It also served as a post station along the salt road (
Tokaido) that ran through
Shinano Province between the modern-day cities of Makinohara
and Hamamatsu.
In the background, travelers cross a a high trestle-bridge
over the Kake River at Kakegawa on a windy day. An old couple
is struggling against a strong wind, followed by a boy making
a mocking gesture; another boy is watching a
circular kite
(Maru-tako, 丸凧). Another cirlular kite with a broken line is
floating away. In the further background, peasants are
planting rice, and in the distance, Mount Akiba rises in the
mists.
This scene is nearly completely the same as Hiroshige's "
Distant
View of Mount Akiba at Kakegawa" from his "Fifty-three
Stations of the Tokaido" Series. The most striking difference
is the Beauty (
Bijin) in the
foreground, resting on a big bundle of rice straw.
The title of this woodblock print ("掛川之図") is given in the
blueish casette on the upper left, with the series title
("東海道五十三次之内") in the adjacent brownish red casette.
Series - "
Tokaido Goju-san Tsugi no
Uchi" ("Tokaido Fifty-three Stations"). In the early 1830s,
Kunisada helped to promote Hiroshige's first 53 Stations on
the Tokaido series which was being issued at the same time.
Kunisada borrowed some of the background designs from
Hiroshige's
famous Tokaido series (see stations #1 to #41 and #44),
and added a beauty in the foreground. Thus this series is
known as "
Bijin
Tokaido".
Kunisada issued his own chuban series published by Sanoki. As
the Hiroshige set had not fully been issued at that time,
Kunisada created completely new compositions for the latter
stations and added another print for Kyoto, thus the pages
would be divisable by two for ease of publication. Thus
Kunisada's 'Bijin series' includes 56 prints and not 55
prints, sa usual for a genuine Tokaido series.
Edition - The first edition of this series seems to
have been published by Sanoya Kihei and Moriya Jihei together,
the prints bear most often the seal of both publishers and
also a red kiwame seal. This later edition of 1835 has only
one publisher seal, either of Moriya Jihei (this print). The
different shaded colours may be due to degradation, the
bokashi shadings are more pregnant. Maybe there are more
intense colours added in this later edition. The censor's seal
is the same, but of different colour. Click this link for this
earlier
edition of Sanoya Kihei.
Artist - see
Biography
Signature - Kôchôrô Kunisada ga ("香蝶楼 国貞画")
central lower right
Publisher - later edition by Moriya Jihei
(Marks
Seal 01-079) (森屋冶兵衛) / (Kinshindō print
studio, 錦森堂) with circular
censor's seal (kiwame,
改印:極) next to the feet of the bijin
Image Size - 24.4 x 17.8 cm (9 5/8 x
7")
Condition - single panel; nishiki-e (cloured
woodblock);
Vertical
chuban (chuban tate-e);