Posted by Noel Chiappa (98.166.148.243) on January 31, 2012 at 18:27:00:
In Reply to: Hiroshige - Bizen Yugayama edition? posted by Willie on January 31, 2012 at 01:58:02:
"The only reason I can think of is that Marujin acquired the blocks after Yamadaya closed shop ... and continued to print this design until this shop closed ... Does this seem likely?"
I'd say it's quite possible.
The original so-called 'Hoeido' Tokaido series was originally co-produced by Hoeido and Tsuru-ya (Senkakudo), and later editions by Hoeido only; the Senkakudo publishers' seals were removed from those later editions. See, for instance, the Hiroshige Michener Collection catalog by Link; I-1-G is station 6 from the first edition, with a Senkakudo seal, and I-1-H is the same station with a Hoeido seal. Apparently the 'Gyosho' Tokaido was also printed by two different publishers over time, which I gather is also known from changing publishers' seals (see Stewart, Guide To Japanese Prints, Chapter XI).
I dipped into a number of Hiroshige catalogs to see if any said anything about 'Wrestling Matches', but no luck. (I did discover that the comment in Strange about "This one only was published by Marujin" seems to be a straight lift from the Memorical Catalog by Watanabe, from 1918.)
Noel