Utagawa Hiroshige, Narumi, Woodcut, 1833

Narumi is a polychrome woodblock print, a original plate from the series Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi, (Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô, also known as the First Tôkaidô or Great Tôkaidô), designed by Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重, 1797-1858) after his travel along the Tokaido in 1832, around 1833. This plate, in horizontal oban, Hoeido edition, reports in Japanese ideograms the signature of the artist, and the Censor's seal and Seal of Date Thanks to this original Hiroshige’s plate, we remember and associate the Station of Narumi with the famous Arimatsu Dyeing Shops in Narumi. In fact in front of this place lies Arimatsu, a place famous for its tie-dyed cloth. Arimatsu Cloth developed under the patronage of the Tokugawa family, the Owari branch, and become one of the main products of that area. Summer Kimono, wrapping clothes, and kimono belts, and much more were made from cotton cloth tie-dyed with Japanese indigo blue or red and were popular. Because of the fact the cloth was also sold at the Narumi station, it is also called Narumi Cloth. This superb print is able to take us in another world, and in another epoca, recording the Japanese customs and traditions. A copy of the same our specimen is preserved at the Nakagawa-machi bato Hiroshige Art Museum, Nasu-gun, Japon In good condition, except for aging signs (discolorations or stains, thinness of the paper), this original print, rich of precious and fine details, has preserved still today its beauty and charme, showing the talented graphic touch of Hiroshige. Provenance: Wuerttemberg private collection, assembled between the 1950s and 2000. Collect this superb Japanese view by a old master of the ukiyo-e, Hiroshige, to embellish your house with a sophisticated Oriental touch! The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次, Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi), is a series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tōkaidō in 1832. The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō was such a popular subject that led Hiroshige to create some 30 series of woodcut prints on it, all very different one from the other by their size (ōban or chuban), their designs or even their number (some series include just a few prints). The Hōeidō edition of the Tōkaidō is Hiroshige's best known work, and the best sold ever ukiyo-e Japanese prints. Created after Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, this print series established this new major theme of ukiyo-e, the landscape print, or fūkei-ga, with a special focus on "famous views" (meisho). Hiroshige's series met a full success, not only in Japan, but later in Western countries.