{"title":"Japanese Woodblock Prints","description":"\u003cp\u003eUkiyo-e sheets printed whole, from the museums' own open-access scans. Hokusai's \u003cem\u003eGreat Wave\u003c\/em\u003e, Hiroshige's rain and snow, the narrow tanzaku bird panels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery sheet is offered at 1:1.\u003c\/strong\u003e Not most of them — all twelve. The first size on every listing puts the picture on paper at the size it left the block-cutter's hands, somewhere between 17 and 38 centimetres. That is smaller than people expect. An ōban sheet is about 25 × 37 cm, roughly A4 turned sideways; the \u003cem\u003eGreat Wave\u003c\/em\u003e is a picture you hold, not a picture you stand back from. We think the true size is worth having, so it is always the first option, and the enlargement is always the second.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression, and why it matters.\u003c\/strong\u003e A woodblock print is not one object photographed several times. Every impression is a separate pull from the blocks, printed in a different year, kept in a different drawer, exposed to different light — and nearly all have faded unevenly, the reds first. So the choice of copy is a curatorial decision, and each listing names it. Our \u003cem\u003eGreat Wave\u003c\/em\u003e is the Art Institute of Chicago's, not the Metropolitan's, because the Met's sheet has lost its pink dawn sky. \u003cem\u003eMaples at Mama\u003c\/em\u003e comes from Minneapolis for the same reason: that impression still carries the band of pink at the horizon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe narrow panels.\u003c\/strong\u003e Three of these are \u003cem\u003eōtanzaku\u003c\/em\u003e — bird-and-flower panels about 38 × 17 cm, a format almost nobody reproduces because it fits no standard frame. At 1:1 on a 40 × 50 sheet that leaves about 11.5 cm of white on each side: the widest margins in the shop, and deliberate. A tall narrow picture floating in white is what the format was for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhole sheets, with one stated exception.\u003c\/strong\u003e We reproduce the printed block entire, including the paper the printer left around it. The exception is Hiroshige's \u003cem\u003eShōno: Driving Rain\u003c\/em\u003e: the museum's sheet has cut corners and a trimmed edge, our first build reproduced them, and we withdrew it — that listing now carries the largest clean rectangle inside the picture, and says so on the page.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEach listing names the holding institution and the accession number, the sheet size the museum catalogues, and the scale we print at. Where our measurement of the block differs from the catalogued figure — usually by about one percent, the width of a hand-trimmed edge — the difference is on the page too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you are working out what frame an ōban, chūban or ōtanzaku needs — for one of ours or for a period sheet you already own — the measurements are in \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/print-frame-guide\"\u003eHow to frame a Japanese woodblock print\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGiclée prints, twelve pigment inks on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, generous white border, ready to frame or mat. Unframed, shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"hokusai-great-wave-off-kanagawa-giclee-print","title":"Katsushika Hokusai – Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), 1830–33 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA wave the height of a house is about to fall. Under its claw three fast boats of oarsmen bend flat to the hulls, and far away, small and calm, stands Mount Fuji. The mountain is the subject; the wave is only weather. That reversal is why the sheet has never stopped working.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHokusai was around seventy when he made it, the first sheet of \u003cem\u003eThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji\u003c\/em\u003e. The deep blue was new — Prussian blue, freshly imported and cheap enough for a commercial print run — and he used it for water, sky and outline alike. Impressions were pulled by the thousand and sold for the price of a bowl of noodles. Fewer than a hundred early ones are known today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of the Metropolitan Museum's impression, printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 24.4 × 35.7 cm \/ 9.6 × 14.1 in — Metropolitan Museum of Art\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 40 cm \/ 19.7 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e70 × 50 cm \/ 27.6 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.7× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is exactly what a buyer in Edo held in two hands. Enlarged, the wave takes a wall and the woodgrain, the register marks and the flecks in the paper of 1830 become visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and Hokusai's signature. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nKatsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), \u003cem\u003eUnder the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura)\u003c\/em\u003e, also known as \u003cem\u003eThe Great Wave\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, ca. 1830–32; woodblock print, ink and colour on paper, 24.4 × 35.7 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1914, Acc. No. JP10.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The Museum publishes its digitisation under Open Access (CC0).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"50 × 40 cm \/ 19.7 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65756452520285,"sku":"MUS-010-5040","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"70 × 50 cm \/ 27.6 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.6× original","offer_id":65756458516829,"sku":"MUS-010-7050","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hokusai-great-wave-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788190974"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-sudden-shower-shin-ohashi-bridge-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, 1857 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eRain is drawn as rain: thousands of straight black lines cut across the sheet at two slightly different angles, printed from two blocks so the downpour crosses itself. Below it people run over a wooden bridge with mats and umbrellas over their heads, and a raft drifts on grey water. Nobody looks up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige made it in 1857, the year before he died, for \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo\u003c\/em\u003e. Thirty-odd years later Vincent van Gogh copied it in oil, line for line, and added a red border of invented Japanese characters. He was not quoting a famous picture — at the time it was a cheap sheet from a print shop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of the Metropolitan Museum's impression, printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 36.5 × 24.3 cm \/ 14.4 × 9.6 in — Metropolitan Museum of Art\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.7× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is exactly the ōban format a buyer in Edo held. Enlarged, the rain lines separate into two distinct falls and the woodgrain of the block comes up through the sky — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eSudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake (Ōhashi Atake no yūdachi)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1857; woodblock print, ink and colour on paper, 36.5 × 24.3 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1918, Acc. No. JP644.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The Museum publishes its digitisation under Open Access (CC0).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65756457369949,"sku":"MUS-011-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65756458549597,"sku":"MUS-011-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-sudden-shower-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788190974"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-maples-at-mama-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Maples at Mama, ca. 1857 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eRed maple leaves hang across the whole top of the sheet, so close that the branch is cut off by the frame. Underneath, far below and very small, a teahouse, a pine, the roofs of the Tekona shrine and a strip of water. The eye is put where a person standing under the tree would have it — a piece of framing so modern it looks like a photograph taken by accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige made it around 1857 for \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo\u003c\/em\u003e, his last great series. Mama, in what is now Chiba, was a half-day trip from the city and famous for its autumn colour. The deep red is a printed gradation, wiped onto the block by hand before each pull, so no two impressions are quite alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Minneapolis Institute of Art's, the gift of Louis W. Hill, Jr. — a fresh pull in which the rose band along the horizon and the graded sky are both intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal sheet: 35.5 × 24.2 cm \/ 14.0 × 9.5 in — Minneapolis Institute of Art\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 20.67 × 31.72 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne size only.\u003c\/strong\u003e At 300 dpi — the floor we hold — this file will not carry a sheet larger than 40 × 50 without being upscaled, so there is no enlarged version. We would rather sell one honest size than two, one of them soft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy this sheet is trimmed.\u003c\/strong\u003e The four corners of this impression are cut at an angle and the block edge runs out into bare paper — normal for a sheet of this age, and the reason a framer would put a mat over it. Rather than reproduce those notched corners, we trim about eight millimetres in from the block edge on all four sides — 110 pixels of the museum's scan — to the largest clean rectangle inside the printed picture. Title cartouche, series cartouche and the signature are all inside it. 1:1 refers to the scale: what you see is printed at the size Hiroshige printed it, and the white border of the sheet does the work of the passepartout — you can frame it as it comes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eMaples at Mama (Mama no momiji)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, ca. 1857; colour woodblock print, ōban, 35.5 × 24.2 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nMinneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Louis W. Hill, Jr., Acc. No. 96.146.193.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain; the museum publishes the digitisation as Public Domain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65756457402717,"sku":"MUS-012-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/MUS-012_MaplesAtMama_plate_v2.jpg?v=1788244357"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-asakusa-ricefields-cat-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival, 1857 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA white cat sits on a windowsill with its back to us, looking out. Beyond the lattice: rice fields, a line of low roofs, geese in the sky and Mount Fuji, small and pale. On the sill behind the cat lie a hairpin and a folded paper — the room is a brothel in the Yoshiwara, and the guest has left at dawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige tells the whole story by leaving the people out. It is the most quietly modern picture in the series: a framed view, a foreground object cut off by the edge, an animal standing in for everyone who is not shown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, the gift of Chester W. Wright, and it is an early, unfaded pull: the indigo band along the top is deep, the pink dawn light above the horizon is intact, and the greens in the fields have not gone yellow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 35.9 × 24.8 cm \/ 14.1 × 9.8 in — Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.7× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is exactly the ōban format a buyer in Edo held. Enlarged, the cat is the size of a real cat and the woodgrain of the block comes up through the sky — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eAsakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival (Asakusa tanbo Torinomachi mōde)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1857; colour woodblock print, ōban, 35.9 × 24.8 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Chester W. Wright, Acc. No. 1961.147.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65757020553565,"sku":"MUS-013-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65757021962589,"sku":"MUS-013-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-asakusa-ricefields-plate.jpg?v=1788193710"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-plum-garden-kameido-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Plum Garden at Kameido, 1857 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA plum trunk stands hard against the picture plane, so close that it is out of focus in the mind's eye, and the garden — visitors, fences, a hundred more trees in flower — is pushed far behind it. The sky is a flat band of red shading to white. Nothing recedes the way European pictures recede.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVincent van Gogh copied this sheet in oil in 1887 and framed his copy with invented Japanese characters. He was not quoting a masterpiece; it was a cheap print he had bought by the bundle. What he was after is exactly what stops you here: a foreground that refuses to get out of the way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike — this one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, from Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson. The red-to-white gradation in the sky is printed cleanly and still saturated, and the green of the ground is still green; on most surviving sheets it has turned to olive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 34.9 × 23.9 cm \/ 13.7 × 9.4 in — Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.8× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is exactly the ōban format a buyer in Edo held. Enlarged, the blossoms separate from the trunk and the hand-wiped gradation in the sky breaks into its own streaks — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003ePlum Garden at Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1857; colour woodblock print, ōban, 34.9 × 23.9 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson, Acc. No. 1965.1027.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65757020651869,"sku":"MUS-014-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.8× original","offer_id":65757022093661,"sku":"MUS-014-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-plum-garden-kameido-plate-v4.jpg?v=1788335348"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-shono-driving-rain-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Shōno: Driving Rain, c. 1833 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eRain falls in two directions at once. Hiroshige printed it from two separate blocks, one set of lines crossing the other at a different angle, so the shower reads as wind rather than weather. Nothing in the picture is still: the bamboo grove bends away up the slope, the hillside behind is a wash of grey with no outline at all, and the path itself tilts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwo groups pass each other going opposite ways, and neither looks up. Bearers carry a covered kago uphill; below them a man runs with a straw cape over his head and another has turned his umbrella into a roof. The umbrella carries the publisher's advertisement — Hiroshige put the shop's name in the middle of the storm, which is either commerce or a joke.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is Shōno, the forty-fifth station of the Tōkaidō, and it is the print people mean when they say Hiroshige understood rain. In the impression reproduced here the dark band across the top is still deep and evenly graded — the first thing to go in later pulls, when the block was tired and the printer was in a hurry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nThe sheet Hiroshige printed measures 24.2 × 36.2 cm. What we reproduce is the picture inside it, trimmed to a clean rectangle — see the note below.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOriginal sheet: 24.2 × 36.2 cm \/ 9.5 × 14.3 in — ōban yoko-e, Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 40 cm \/ 19.7 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 30.77 × 21.57 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e70 × 50 cm \/ 27.6 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — enlarged, 1.8× original. Image 55.39 × 38.83 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy this sheet is trimmed.\u003c\/strong\u003e The paper of this impression has cut corners and a hand-trimmed edge that runs into the picture on two sides — normal for a Hōeidō Tōkaidō sheet, and the reason a framer would put a mat over it. Rather than reproduce that ragged outline, we trim about 2.7 cm in from the left and right edges of the scan and about 1.4 cm from the top and the bottom, to the largest clean rectangle inside the printed picture. The title cartouche, the series title, the signature and both publisher's seals are all inside it. 1:1 refers to the scale: what you see is printed at the size Hiroshige printed it, and the white border of the sheet does the work of the passepartout — you can frame it as it comes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Chicago digitisation carries 561 dpi at original size and 312 dpi at the larger sheet — both above the 300 dpi we hold as the floor, and the enlargement stops exactly at the 1.8× ceiling we apply to line-based works. Nothing is upscaled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sheets are metric; the inch figures are exact conversions rather than US nominal sizes. Nearest standard frames: 20 × 16 in and 28 × 20 in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eShōno: Driving Rain (Shōno hakuu)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eFifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi)\u003c\/em\u003e, also known as the Hōeidō Tōkaidō, c. 1833–34; colour woodblock print, ōban yoko-e, 24.2 × 36.2 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, Acc. No. 1925.3553.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. Open-access image released by the museum under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The tone of the aged paper is kept, not corrected away. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"50 × 40 cm \/ 19.7 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65758999544157,"sku":"MUS-015-5040","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"70 × 50 cm \/ 27.6 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.8× original","offer_id":65758999576925,"sku":"MUS-015-7050","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-shono-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788243833"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-enoshima-caves-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Sagami Province: The Caves at Enoshima, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eLow tide at Enoshima. The sea has drawn back far enough to walk in, and Hiroshige puts us down at the waterline, looking up at the eroded rock and into the dark mouth of the cave. Above the cliff, a few wind-bent pines; across the bay, Mount Fuji, pale and small under a band of early pink.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe caves — \u003cem\u003eiwaya\u003c\/em\u003e — were the reason people made the crossing to the island: inside was a shrine to Benzaiten, and it could be reached only when the tide allowed. Hiroshige leaves the pilgrims out. What is left is water, rock and the black opening, stacked up the tall sheet of the ōban format he used throughout this series.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson. The deep water is still dark blue and the graded sky above the horizon has kept its pink — the two colours that go first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 37 × 25.3 cm \/ 14.6 × 10.0 in — Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.7× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet is the ōban a buyer in 1853 held in his hands. Enlarged, the surf comes up to the size it suggests and the grain of the block shows in the flat blue — a different picture, and a deliberate one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eSagami Province: Entrance to the Caves at Enoshima (Sagami, Enoshima iwaya no kuchi)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eFamous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujūyoshū meisho zue)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; colour woodblock print, ōban, 37 × 25.3 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson, Acc. No. 1965.962.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65761681342813,"sku":"MUS-016-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65761681375581,"sku":"MUS-016-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-enoshima-caves-plate-v4.jpg?v=1788335391"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-mount-daisen-ono-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Hōki Province: Distant View of Mount Daisen from Ono, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eRain over the rice fields at Ono. Hiroshige rules the whole sheet with fine diagonal lines — the woodblock shorthand for rain, each stroke cut into the block by hand — and behind them Mount Daisen stands flat and grey-blue, more a presence than a mountain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the paddies below, people go on working under wide hats, bent over the flooded terraces, while a line of dark pines holds the middle distance. It is the least dramatic subject in the series and one of the best: weather, distance and labour, held in three bands of colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, from the Frederick W. Gookin Collection: the rain lines are still crisp and unbroken, and the greens of the fields have not gone yellow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 33 × 22.2 cm \/ 13.0 × 8.7 in — Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.8× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy the border is wider here.\u003c\/strong\u003e We do not enlarge a line-cut work beyond 1.8×: past that, the lines the cutter made stop reading as cut lines. On the 50 × 70 sheet our usual 8 % border would have meant 1.89×, so the border is opened to 10 % and the print stops at 1.8×. A slightly smaller image on the same sheet, on purpose.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the title cartouche and the publisher's seals. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eOno, Distant View of Mount Daisen in Hōki Province (Hōki, Ono, Daisen enbō)\u003c\/em\u003e, from the series \u003cem\u003eFamous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces (Rokujūyoshū meisho zue)\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; colour woodblock print, ōban, 33 × 22.2 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Frederick W. Gookin Collection, Acc. No. 1939.1504.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65761699856733,"sku":"MUS-017-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.8× original","offer_id":65761699889501,"sku":"MUS-017-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-hiroshige-mount-daisen-plate-v4.jpg?v=1788335435"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-peacock-and-peonies-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Peacock and Peonies, 1830s | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA peacock stands in a bank of peonies, its tail running up the right edge of the sheet and out of the picture. The format is \u003cem\u003eōtanzaku\u003c\/em\u003e — a tall, narrow panel of about 38 by 17.5 centimetres, the shape used for poem-slips and for pictures meant to hang in the narrow space between two posts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige is remembered for landscapes, but he made hundreds of bird-and-flower panels like this one, and they are the sheets in which his colour is boldest: a flat teal ground, the pink of the peonies laid on in two strengths, the eyes of the tail feathers printed in a blue that still reads as metal. The poem in the upper left belongs to the design, not to the catalogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, from the Clarence Buckingham Collection — the teal ground is even and unfaded and the peacock blue in the tail is intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 38 × 17.5 cm \/ 15.0 × 6.9 in — ōtanzaku, Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 17.12 × 37.22 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — enlarged, 1.7× original. Image 28.52 × 62.00 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA narrow picture on a standard sheet.\u003c\/strong\u003e A panel of this shape has no standard frame of its own. The sheet sizes that would fit it tightly — 25 × 60 cm and the like — mean a made-to-measure frame and made-to-measure glass. So the picture is centred on our normal sheets instead, with the side borders wider than the top and bottom. That is how a narrow picture is matted anyway, and it means you can frame this one in a 16 × 20 or 20 × 28 inch frame bought off the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the poem and the signature. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003ePeacock and Peonies\u003c\/em\u003e, 1830s; colour woodblock print, ōtanzaku, 38 × 17.5 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, Acc. No. 1943.633.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65761862648157,"sku":"MUS-018-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65761862680925,"sku":"MUS-018-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/MUS-018_PeacockPeonies_plate.jpg?v=1788246145"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-sparrows-camellia-snow-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Sparrows and Camellia in Snow, c. 1831–33 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo sparrows drop through falling snow past a camellia branch, its leaves loaded and its flowers still open. The format is \u003cem\u003eōtanzaku\u003c\/em\u003e — a tall, narrow panel of about 38 by 17.3 centimetres, the shape used for poem-slips and for pictures meant to hang in the narrow space between two posts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHiroshige is remembered for landscapes, but he made hundreds of bird-and-flower panels like this one. The snow in them is not painted on: it is the paper itself, left unprinted — the drift on each leaf, the breasts of the birds, the flakes in the air. The picture is built out of what the blocks were cut to leave alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, given by H. R. Warner in 1932: the blue ground is even and the red of the camellia has not turned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 38 × 17.3 cm \/ 15.0 × 6.8 in — ōtanzaku, Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 16.96 × 37.18 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — enlarged, 1.7× original. Image 28.28 × 62.00 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA narrow picture on a standard sheet.\u003c\/strong\u003e A panel of this shape has no standard frame of its own. A sheet cut tightly around it — 25 × 60 cm and the like — would mean a made-to-measure frame and made-to-measure glass. So the picture is centred on our normal sheets instead, with the side borders wider than the top and bottom. That is what a mount does for a narrow picture anyway, and it lets you frame this one in a 16 × 20 or 20 × 28 inch frame bought off the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the inscription and the seal. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount. The block was re-measured at full resolution on 2 September 2026 and the reproduction now carries it to its outermost printed edge on all four sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eSparrows and Camellia in Snow\u003c\/em\u003e, c. 1831–33; colour woodblock print, ōtanzaku, 38 × 17.3 cm.\u003cbr\u003eThe Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of H. R. Warner, Acc. No. 1932.208.\u003cbr\u003ePublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65762086224221,"sku":"MUS-020-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65762086256989,"sku":"MUS-020-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/MUS-020_SparrowsCamellia_plate_v2.jpg?v=1788321992"},{"product_id":"hiroshige-wild-duck-in-snow-giclee-print","title":"Utagawa Hiroshige – Wild Duck in Snow, 1830s | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA wild duck swims along a snow-covered bank. Above it the reeds bend under their own load of snow; below, the water is a deep, even blue with white flakes falling across it. The bird is the only warm thing in the picture — buff and brown against the cold — and it is drawn with the economy of someone who had watched ducks for a long time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe format is \u003cem\u003eōtanzaku\u003c\/em\u003e, a tall narrow panel of about 38 by 17 centimetres, the shape used for poem-slips and for pictures hung in the narrow space between two posts. The snow is not painted on: it is the bare paper, left unprinted, with the blue laid around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich impression.\u003c\/strong\u003e Woodblocks wear and pigments fade, so no two surviving sheets look alike. This one is the Art Institute of Chicago's, from the Clarence Buckingham Collection — the blue of the water is still deep and evenly graded, and the reeds have kept their fine line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. It is not a woodblock print and is not sold as one — a woodblock print is pulled by hand from cut cherry blocks, and the good impressions are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 38.2 × 17 cm \/ 15.0 × 6.7 in — ōtanzaku, Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 16.63 × 37.35 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — enlarged, 1.7× original. Image 27.61 × 62.00 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA narrow picture on a standard sheet.\u003c\/strong\u003e A panel of this shape has no standard frame of its own. The sheet sizes that would fit it tightly mean a made-to-measure frame and made-to-measure glass, so the picture is centred on our normal sheets instead, with the side borders wider than the top and bottom. That is how a narrow picture is matted anyway, and it means you can frame this one in a 16 × 20 or 20 × 28 inch frame bought off the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe sheet is reproduced whole, including the poem and the signature. Nothing is cropped away but the museum's mount.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nUtagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), \u003cem\u003eA Wild Duck Swimming by a Snow-covered Bank beneath Snow-laden Reeds\u003c\/em\u003e, 1830s; colour woodblock print, ōtanzaku, 38.2 × 17 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, Acc. No. 1952.338.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its digitisation under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65762950316381,"sku":"MUS-021-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65762950349149,"sku":"MUS-021-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/MUS-021_WildDuckSnow_plate.jpg?v=1788250467"},{"product_id":"hokusai-bullfinch-weeping-cherry-giclee-print","title":"Katsushika Hokusai – Bullfinch and Weeping Cherry, c. 1834 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eA bullfinch hangs upside down from a branch of weeping cherry, and the whole sheet is the colour of a night sky. This is one of the small bird-and-flower prints Hokusai made around 1834, in the same years and for the same publisher as \u003cem\u003eThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe blue is the point.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is Prussian blue — \u003cem\u003ebero-ai\u003c\/em\u003e, a synthetic pigment imported through Nagasaki and, by the early 1830s, cheap enough to lay across a whole sheet. Japanese printers had never had a blue that held its depth without fading. It is the same pigment that carries \u003cem\u003eUnder the Wave off Kanagawa\u003c\/em\u003e, and here Hokusai spends it on the ground rather than the subject: the bird and the blossom are almost uncoloured, and the sky does the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe birds in this group are not decorative. Each is a species a Japanese reader would name at a glance — here \u003cem\u003euso\u003c\/em\u003e, the bullfinch — paired with the plant that flowers at the same moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks from the Art Institute of Chicago's own open-access photograph of the sheet. It is not a nineteenth-century impression and is not sold as one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal: 25.4 × 19.1 cm \/ 10 × 7.5 in — colour woodblock print, chūban, Art Institute of Chicago\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e27 × 35 cm \/ 10.6 × 13.8 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — original size, 1:1. Image 18.87 × 25.40 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — enlarged, 1.72× original. Image 32.39 × 43.60 cm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy the small sheet is 27 × 35 and not 30 × 40.\u003c\/strong\u003e A chūban is a small sheet — about the size of a sheet of A4 turned upright. At 1:1 it needs a sheet that sits close around it, or the picture floats. 27 × 35 leaves a border of four centimetres at the sides and fits the standard 11 × 14 inch frame.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy the large sheet stops at 1.72×.\u003c\/strong\u003e House ceiling for line work is 1.8×. Enlarge a woodblock print further and you enlarge the cut line itself — the carver's stroke starts to look like a drawn one. The 40 × 50 sheet takes the picture as far as that rule allows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA note on the trim.\u003c\/strong\u003e The sheet was cut close to the printed block, and the museum's scan carries a few millimetres of scanner ground around it. That ground is removed; the printed block is reproduced whole, edge to edge, including the signature and publisher's seal at the upper right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nKatsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (Japanese, 1760–1849), \u003cem\u003eBullfinch and Weeping Cherry (Uso, shidarezakura)\u003c\/em\u003e, from an untitled series of flowers and birds, c. 1834.\u003cbr\u003e\nColour woodblock print, chūban; 25.4 × 19.1 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nArt Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, Acc. No. 1925.3367.\u003cbr\u003e\nPublic domain. The museum publishes its photograph under CC0.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The colour of the museum's file is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"27 × 35 cm \/ 10.6 × 13.8 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65771551850845,"sku":"MUS-025-2735","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.7× original","offer_id":65771551883613,"sku":"MUS-025-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/MUS-025_Bullfinch_plate.jpg?v=1788270905"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/collections\/museartis-hokusai-great-wave-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788261241","url":"https:\/\/museartis.com\/collections\/japanese-woodblock-prints.oembed","provider":"Museartis","version":"1.0","type":"link"}