Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) - series and prints

1. Tokaido Part One (Thumbnails)
2. Tokaido Part Two (Thumbnails)

This is the second series "The 53 Stations of the Tokaido" from 1852. A lot of these prints is not signed. Why not (most of the pictures/images are cut off)?

For this question Andrew Kowalczuk give the following answer (and I think he is right):
"The 'single sheets' seem like they may actually be chuban-sized prints for several reasons: the size of the signature cartouche and censor/publisher seals are much bigger relative to the print, the designs are
more crowded with the actors faces relatively larger, the ratio of width to height of the paper seems to be consistent with chuban prints. Also it would explain why exactly one-half of the prints are unsigned - if only one side of each oban sheet had the signature cartouche and then the sheets were cut in half".

In August 2007 I found a complet print which shows that Andrew's presumption has been correct. The chuban prints were done as one oban sheet and only signed and sealed either on the right or the left side of the print.

The black and white files on this site are all taken from a little exhibition pamhlet which I got from Regis Allegro and it have no further data to the prints.

So, if you have some coulered files and matching informations, please send them to me:
horstgraebner@kunisada.de

Part One (Data)

Tokaido Part One (Data)
TOP
Tokaido Part Two (Data)