previous page

view map

SADAHIDE, Gountei  (1807 - c. 1878)		Gokaido Yokohama no zenzu 'Complete Picture of The Newly Opened Port of Yokohama'
		Signed:                    Gyokuransai Hashimoto ken Publisher:               Yamashiro-ya Jinbei Maruya Tokuzo Dated:                       c. 1860 / 1864 Size:                         c. 71 x 193 cms / c. 27 3/8" x 75 1/4" A large-sized map composed of several smaller prints; mounted on a canvas backing. - Rare. Early and important document of the port of Yokohama, pls. read below. Condition: Paper defects, wear from use. Fair condition. Canvas backing fully intact. ref. no.:  # 571624 Price:  € 950.00

A detailed discussion of this map can be found in the important catalog published by the Smithsonian Institution** in conjunction with an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 1990/91. Here we just touch on a few aspects stressing the novelty and importance of this work in Japanese woodblock printed landscape maps as discussed in that useful and lavishly illustrated catalog. Quotes: "A magnificent topographical view of the new town of Yokohama is presented by this large landscape map. Published within the year after Yokohama opened, the print represents an impressive technical achievement ... it is one of the largest prints ever published in the traditional Japanese technique of woodblock printing (note: the entire pictures is composed of several sheets which were then combined) ... In creating this expansive yet minutely detailed landscape map of Yokohama and its environs, Sadahide (who signed this work with his artistic name, 'Gyokuransai (from Edo's) Hashimoto district') employed techniques of observation and artistic visualization that had been an important force in Japanese painting since the second half of the eighteenth century ... Complete Picture of the Newly Opened Port of Yokohama was a significant achievement, magnificent in scale and successful as both a landscape and guide to the rapidly developing region. The importance and popularity of the impressive print in the years following its publication are confirmed by the existence of several versions, all fundamentally identical but differing from each other in particulars ...The continued popularity of the image ... reflects its utility as a guide to the region and the brilliance of Sadahide's first great landscape of Yokohama." Our version of the map represents Yokohama at a slightly later stage of development when the city and its entertainment district, Miyozaki-cho, had grown; it probably dates from 1864. Reference: - ** Ann Yonemura, 'Yokohama - Prints from nineteenth-century Japan'; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1990, pp. 44-49, several ills. - 'Yokohama Ukiyo-e', ill. on p. 244

   previous page                                                                 view map