Merry Christmas!!

Image from The Woodblock Prints of Ando Hiroshige.

浮世絵

I was reading Patty's review of Hermès's Iris Ukiyoe at Perfume Posse, and naturally thought of... ukiyoe!

This is my favorite ukiyoe print: Seba from The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido by Hiroshige (click to enlarge). I have a copy of this print, framed, although it is still not hanging. I bought the print at the Ukiyoe Museum in Matsumoto. The man in the store claimed they made it using Hiroshige's original wood block. However, if you compare my copy with this one, or ones from the Japanese National Museum, the lines aren't as fine in the grass, so I think the salesman was fibbing. Still, I love the loneliness of the scene. The location is in Nagano-ken.

I took this image from an excellent site with copies of Hiroshige, The Woodblock Prints of Ando Hiroshige. Coincidentally, this site uses Seba as the image on its home page.