Kuniyoshi - Sanjoin Hokaibo and Koi hanging scroll

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Ogura Nazorae Hyakunin Isshu (Based on the Ogura [Version] of the One Hundred Poets) Poet Sanjō in (Retired Emperor Sanjō) 三条院 (976-1017)

The set is composed by Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada, whereby Kunisada designed only 14 prints. From Hiroshige are 35 prints and Kuniyoshi designed 51 prints. The series is divided in two parts: the first half has in the upper quarter the series title and a poem, the second half has to that a fan-shaped inset with a small portrait of the poet.

Each print compares one of the poems from the most-beloved collection of Japanese poetry, The One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, with a scene from Japanese history or theatre. Begun during the repressive Tenpō Reforms, the series includes many surreptitious portraits of popular actors. 

Scene: Hōkaibō

Play: Sumidagawa Gonichi no Omokage

Publisher: Ibaya Sensaburō

Condition: Not backed, crease down center, color and impression good.

You can find the text of the "hundred poems" and an English translation under: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/hyakunin/index.html

http://www.kunisada.de/Kunisada-series72-Ogura/series72-ogura-0.htm