Posted by Noel Chiappa (98.166.150.196) on June 10, 2011 at 17:36:40:
In Reply to: Re: Hiroshige Buddha any info posted by Andrew on June 10, 2011 at 09:34:14:
"The word in the title of the print is 'Josenji'"
Ah, thanks for the correct reading.
"Could not find an example of or reference to this as a Hiroshige design."
This was bothering me, but it really does look like his work. Perhaps it's a one-off, and not part of a series (and thus less likely to be catalogued)? Since the date is certainly fairly early (given the signature, etc), perhaps he had to look hard for work at that point, and would have been willing to do single prints at that point in time? (I know there are a number of single bijin prints from that point in his career.) And it being an early work by a (then) not well-known artist would explain why it is so rare - not that many would have been printed, and being further back in time, fewer copies would have survived of those.
I haven't tried looking through the 'Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of Hiroshige's Work' (now available online, complete, here:
http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/watanabe/watanabe.htm
thanks John for all the hard work to do that), but perhaps it is in there?
"If this is authentic, as opposed to a Meiji (re)print, it may be valuable."
Given that it's so rare, even as a re-print it would have some value. (Although if I had to bet one way or the other, I would bet that it is not a re-print: they tended to reprint the better known ones, not very rare/obscure prints - and if it had been reprinted in any kind of numbers, one would think it would not be so rare.)
"Would be interesting to see better quality photos showing the whole print, as well as close-ups"
Indeed! A scan (in two parts if you have to, they can be joined electronically) would be even better.
Noel