Utagawa Hiroshige

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (Tokyo, 1797–1858).
“Sōhitsu Gafu.” Volume II.
Illustrated book.
Shows damage caused by wood-boring insects.
Measurements: 18.5 x 12 x 1 cm.
Second volume of *Sōhitsu Gafu*, an illustrated work attributed to Utagawa Hiroshige, one of the great masters of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printing. The title can be translated as “Album of Brush Drawings,” referring to the spontaneity and fluidity of the brushstrokes that characterize this type of graphic collection.
The publication brings together illustrations executed with agility and expressiveness, in which the economy of lines, the delicacy of the drawing, and the restrained use of color reveal Hiroshige’s artistic sensibility. The combination of ink and soft tones—with shades of gray, blue, and pink—reflects a poetic conception of the image, closely linked to the Japanese pictorial tradition. Published during the Edo period, this volume belongs to the tradition of ehon, illustrated books that played a fundamental role in the dissemination of graphic models and the transmission of artistic knowledge in Japan. One copy is preserved in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution.