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SADAKAGE, Utagawa (fl. 1818 - 44)		The Six Pearl Rivers  Mu Tamagwa - no. 2: Omi -
Original                                        Akashi copy-A		Signed:                    Gokotei Seal:                         toshidama Two poems by:        Rogetsuan Baiei and Shakuyakutei Commissioned by: the OEREN poetry circle Date:                        1820 / Year of the Dragon (the original) Date:                        1890s (the copy) Size:                         shikishiban

The poems by Rogetsuan Baiei and Shakuyakutei are about Hatsuyume, the first dream of the New Year and Yotaka ('Night Hawk'), the cheapest prostitute who usually carries a towel on her head and a rolled mat under her arm. Under the full moon in the fields where lespedeza is growing, she is shown here having caught hold of a possible customer. The given publication date of the original edition is evident by the elaborately printed motif of a 'dragon above waves' in the border: the year 1820 was the 'Year of the Dragon' in the Chinese lunar calendar. - The commissioning poetry circle of the surimono was the Oeren; their emblem was a flower with five petals seen in the fan of the title cartouche. Though faithfully reproduced, the copy-A version shows differences in the key block lines. The color tones differ from those in the original print since color pigments used in the first quarter of the 19th century were no longer available in the Meiji period. A ground-breaking study of the so-called 'Akashi' copies of surimono was for the first time made by Roger Keyes in his two-volume publication, "The Art of Surimono" (see list of reference books below). For currently available original surimono and samples of (and more information on) Akashi copy-A versions see the  surimono section  in the main gallery. Reference: - Jack Hillier, Japanese Prints and Drawings from the Vever Collection; London, 1976; vol. III, no. 824b (for an original impression). - Roger Keyes, The Art of Surimono, London, 1985, 2 vols.; for the Akashi copy see: Listing of copies in vol. II, no. 126. For other designs from the series, see: - S. Schmidt & S. Kuwabara, Surimono, Berlin, 1990; pp. 152-53, cat. no. 68 (ill. in color). - Tokyo National Museum, Ukiyo-e Prints - vol. III; Tokyo, 1960; nos. 2710-11 (in b/w).    - one set of the now rare complete 3-vol. edition is for sale in the  Reference books  section (last item at the bottom of that page). - For comparisons of other surimono originals with copied versions, see: - S. Asano/E. Kondo ed.al., Heiteres Treiben in der Vergänglichen Welt (selected prints and books from the Pulverer collection), Cologne, 1991, cat. nos. 2-44 through 2-70.    - (There is a German and a Japanese edition of the catalog, published on the occasion of a joint-exhibition held in four museums in 1990-91).

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