Flowers of Edo and Views of Famous Places (Edo no hana meishō-e); from right to left: O Brigade, Sixth Group, Ichigaya: Onoe Baikō as Kobotoke Kohei; Ku Brigade, Fifth Group, Yotsuya: Bandō Hikosaburō V as the Ghost of Oiwa (Oiwa no bōrei); Ya Brigade, Fifth Group, Kōjimachi: Seki Sanjūrō III as Naosuke Gonbei; and Ma Brigade, Fifth Group, Kuichigai: Kataoka Nizaemon VIII as Tamiya Iemon 「於　六番組　市ヶ谷　小仏小平　尾上梅寿」　「く　五番組　四谷　於岩の亡霊　坂東彦三郎」　「や　語番組　麹町　直助権兵衛　関三十郎」　「ま　五番組　喰違　民谷伊右衛門　片岡仁左衛門」　『江戸廼華名勝会』

Object Details

• Artist

  Utagawa Kunisada 歌川国貞 (1786-1865)

  Utagawa Sadahide 歌川貞秀 (1807-1873)

  Kawanabe Kyosai 河鍋暁斎 (1831-1889)

• Publisher

  Katoya Iwazo (Seibei) 加藤屋岩蔵

• Label

  Between 1862 and 1865, the actor print specialist Utagawa Kunisada designed a large scale series that paired portraits of actors with different districts in Edo and their local fire brigades. The title of the series, Flowers of Edo (Edo no hana), was a phrase commonly used to refer to the frequent fires that “blossomed” all over Edo—a densely populated city made almost entirely of wood and paper. The series was a significant undertaking, with other major artists contributing parts of the complex compositions. Four designs in the series depict characters from Ghost Story of Yotsuya on the Tōkaidō, connected by a sinuous spirit flame that begins with Kohei on the right-most sheet and extends to Iemon at far left. The red lead pigment used for the monstrous head at the end of the spirit flame has oxidized to a dark gray, creating a genuinely smoky effect.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints (March 23 to October 6, 2024)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Pearl and Seymour Moskowitz Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1860s, 1670s, 1660s

• Name

  Utagawa, Sadahide, Utagawa, Kunisada, Katoya, Minokichi, Kawanabe, Kyosai

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Oiwa, Art, Actors and actresses, Tetraptych, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, The Pearl and Seymour Moskowitz Collection

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints