Staff Pick: Mt. Hiyori and Toba Bay in Shima Province, no. 8 by Hiroshige
Mt. Hiyori and Toba Bay in Shima Province, no. 8, or, Shima hiyoriyama toba minato
Collection: Fry Family Papers, 1837-1993 (#1197)
Staff Person: John Dunning
“I leave my body in the East/And set forth on my journey./I shall see the famous places in the Western Land.”¹ While Hiroshige himself never visited the West, millions are fortunate his art has found its way here.
Mt. Hiyori and Toba Bay in Shima Province, no. 8, or, Shima hiyoriyama toba minato by Hiroshige (1797-1858) is a reproduction of his original ukiyo-e print from the series Pictures of Famous Places in the Sixty-Odd Provinces published in 1856². Born Ando Tokutaro into the samurai-class as the hereditary leader of the Tokyo fire brigade attached to Edo castle³, Hiroshige was the foremost landscape artist of the Edo period (1603-1868). Hiroshige stood “pre-eminently”⁴ over his contemporaries, and his compositions, use of color⁵, and his depictions of authentic, everyday Japanese life won him admirers at home and abroad. The rising, Japanese middle-class collected his works as well as Western collectors⁶. Hiroshige’s ukiyo-e, or woodblock prints, influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists with Monet owning some of Hiroshige’s work and Van Gogh reproducing paintings of several of Hiroshige’s prints in his impressionistic style⁷.
Found in the Fry Family Papers, 1837-1993, this print, given the alternate title on Mt. Hiyoriyama in Shima Provinco, was likely a souvenir acquired by a missionary or someone with ties to the Fry family, and presented to the Fry’s as a gift for their philanthropic support. The red cartouche in the upper right corner states the series title with the title of the individual work in the yellow to the left.⁸ Hiroshige’s signature is on the left of the print in the lower, red cartouche. The censors’ seals, block cutter’s seal, publisher’s name, and date of printing are absent on this copy. The original engraver was Horita and the work was first printed in the year of the Ox, July, 1853.⁹ Other slight variations between this print and one of the first state include the absence of three birds in the sky above the ships on the horizon, the absence of fine white stripes on the tree trunks in the foreground, and a yellow subtitle cartouche instead of a multi-colored one¹⁰. The glassine paper which overlays the print provides a biography of Hiroshige in both Japanese and English.
The Fry family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were philanthropists who supported missions in Europe and Asia, the International Students’ House at the University of Pennsylvania, and other charitable organizations¹¹. The Fry’s also supported the arts, and correspondence, photographs, and the artwork of Ling-Fu Yang, a noted Chinese-American artist and poet are also included in the collection¹². Yang’s paintings with accompanying poetry can be found in The Compilation of the Poems and Paintings by Ling-Fu Yang, volume 1 by Ling-Fu Yang, published by Chung Hwa Book Co. Shanghai, October, 1926, first edition, included in the collection.
Researchers interested in studying missions and missionaries of the early 20th century in Belgium, France, China, Hong Kong, and India, the missionary Dr. William Kelly, orphans and orphanages in the early 20th century, the effects of World War I, and Fry family genealogy, will find the Fry Family Papers of particular interest. Additional information on ukiyo-prints, Japanese and Chinese art, Chinese poetry, and related topics can be found throughout Joyner Library’s collections.
Sources:
1. Michail Uspensky, Hiroshige (Poland: Parkstone International, 2013), 3.
2. Edward F. Strange, “Edward F. Strange: The Colour-Prints of Hiroshige,” The Woodblock Prints of Utagawa Hiroshige, July 22, 2019, https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Strange/Strange.htm.
3. Hiroshige’s Woodblock Prints: A Guide (New York: Dover Publications, 1983).
4. Hiroshige: Birds and Flowers (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1988.)
5. Shizuya Fujikake, Japanese Wood-Block Prints (Tokyo: Japan Travel Bureau, 1953), 57.
6. Richard Lane, Masters of the Japanese Print: Their World and Their Work (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1962), 269.
7. Lane, Masters of the Japanese Print, 22-23.
8. Hiroshige: Birds and Flowers, 9.
9. Strange, “Edward F. Strange: The Colour-Prints of Hiroshige,” https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Strange/Strange_Catalogue_16.htm
10. Marije Jansen, Hiroshige’s Journey in the 60-odd Provinces (Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2004), 44-45.
11. Fry Family Papers, 1837-1993 (Greenville, North Carolina: East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University).
12. Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (Stanford, California: Standford University Press, 2008), 464-65.