資料名 |
Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway Hakone |
解説 |
Utagawa Yoshikazu The production date: 1853 (Kaei 6) Oiso was the birthplace of Tora Gozen, a courtesan who fell in love with Juro, the elder of the Soga brothers, famed as the protagonists in a tale of revenge. Tora was said to be born after an elder who was unable to conceive a child prayed to the gods. In response, the goddess Benzaiten appeared in a dream and left behind a stone. The stone was called the Torago Stone, and saved Juro when he was attacked by an assassin. In this picture, the Torago Stone has the legs and tail of a tiger (tora), and the passers-by are bowled over by it. In the print for Hakone, a fox is riding on a horse. The saying “like a fox on a horse” is a simile for being agitated and unsettled. It is also one for irresponsibility and untrustworthiness. To be sure, the man leading the horse looks disquieted. The setting is within the mountains of Hakone, on the border between the provinces of Izu and Sagami. Many Utagawa school ukiyo-e artists published the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway”. In this distinctive series, Yoshikazu introduced the legends and episodes that related to the post stations of the Toukaidou Highway humorously. Generally, he produced humorous pictures with horizontal small ko-ban size format. Utagawa Yoshikazu Date of birth and death unknown Yoshikazu was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and active from the Kaei era till Meiji 3 (1848~1870). He also used the artist names such as Shunsai and Ichikawa. He produced many worrier pictures, kacho-ga (pictures of birds and flowers), and Yokohama-e (ukiyo-e depicting foreigner’s life styles or the scenes of Yokohama). He also produced illustrations of kusa-zoshi (books with illustrations ). |
資料番号 |
10591 |
