The record behind the sheet in your tube: the file we worked from, what we measured, which impression we chose and why, what we are allowed to sell, and the framing dimensions for this sheet.
The sheet you have
- Work
- Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Sagami Province: Entrance to the Caves at Enoshima (Sagami, Enoshima iwaya no kuchi), from Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces, 1853
- Object
- Colour woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban, 37 × 25.3 cm
- Held by
- The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Henderson
- Accession
- 1965.962 (AIC object 130544)
- File
- The museum's own IIIF endpoint, 6800 × 9854 px from a native 6857 × 9937
- Crop
- [148, 127, 6700, 9693] → 6552 × 9566 px, ratio 1.4600
- Printed at
- 40 × 50 cm sheet: image 25.30 × 36.93 cm, original size, 1:1 — 658 dpi available
50 × 70 cm sheet: image 42.00 × 61.32 cm, 1.66× — 396 dpi available
Which impression, and why this one
Two colours carry this sheet and both are the first to go: the dark blue of the deep water at the bottom, and the graded pink above the horizon behind Fuji. On Chicago's impression the blue is still dark and the pink is still there. The caves themselves — iwaya, reachable only at low tide, with a shrine to Benzaiten inside — are the reason people crossed to the island; Hiroshige leaves the pilgrims out and gives you water, rock and the black opening.
What we measured
The printed block runs 6552 × 9566 px in the museum's file, a ratio of 1.4600 against the catalogued 1.4625. The scale is anchored on the catalogued block width of 25.30 cm.
Record of a correction: on 2 September 2026 an edge audit reported that this crop cut 0.92 mm off the block on the right. Re-measured natively and checked by eye at five-fold magnification, that reading proved to be an artifact — the routine had treated pale printed ground as unprinted paper. A corrective crop was printed for a few hours, carried about 0.9 mm of blank paper on the right, and was reverted the same day. The crop above is the original and the correct one.
What we are allowed to sell
The work. Hiroshige died in 1858 and the sheet was published in 1853: public domain in every market we ship to.
The photograph. The Art Institute of Chicago publishes images of public-domain works under Creative Commons Zero, for any purpose including commercial use. Taken from the museum's own endpoint.
What we do not claim. A giclée reproduction printed with pigment inks. Not a woodblock print, and not sold as one.
Framing this sheet
- 40 × 50 cm sheet
- A 40 × 50 cm frame, no mat. Nearest standard 16 × 20 in. Margins 7.35 cm each side, 6.08 above, 6.99 below.
- 50 × 70 cm sheet
- A 50 × 70 cm frame. Nearest standard 20 × 28 in. Margins 4.00 cm each side, 4.04 above, 4.64 below.
- If you mat it
- Go one frame size up and cut the window three millimetres inside the printed image on every side. Do not trim the sheet.
Please measure before you buy or cut. These figures describe the file we print from. Sheets are cut by machine to about a millimetre and frames vary between makers. We replace a print that arrives damaged or wrong; we cannot replace a frame or mat that turns out not to fit.
All records: museartis.com/pages/sheet-records · Questions: info@museartis.com