Nagakubo - After Utagawa Hiroshige

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

Title: Nagakubo (長久保)

Series: Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (Kisokaidō Rokujūkyū Tsugi no Uchi)

Station: No. 28 – Nagakubo

Original Design: c. 1835–1838

Medium: Color woodblock print

Edition: Later Japanese reprint

Publisher of Reprint: Dai-ichi Kōgei (第一巧芸版)

Signature: Hiroshige ga, block-signed within the image

Size: 12.625 X 8.5 in

This Japanese woodblock print reproduces Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Nagakubo,” Station No. 28 from the celebrated Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō. The original design dates to the 1830s and belongs to one of Hiroshige’s most important landscape series.

The scene depicts travelers arriving at Nagakubo beneath a pale moon. A large pine dominates the composition while figures, horses and dogs gather along the riverbank. Hiroshige renders the distant mountains and bridge in soft gray silhouettes, giving the landscape a remarkably atmospheric sense of depth and evening light.

This impression is a later Japanese woodblock reprint rather than a 19th-century impression. The left margin bears the red inscription 第一巧芸版 (Dai-ichi Kōgei-ban), identifying it as an edition published by Dai-ichi Kōgei. It was produced through the traditional Japanese woodblock process rather than being a modern photographic reproduction.

Inscriptions & Marks:

• Nagakubo (長久保) title cartouche at upper left
• Series title Kisokaidō Rokujūkyū Tsugi no Uchi
• Hiroshige ga block signature
• Reproduction of the original publisher/seal information within the design
• Dai-ichi Kōgei (第一巧芸版) reprint mark in the left margin
• Traditional color woodblock printing

Condition: Very good overall vintage condition. Light toning and minor discoloration are visible in the margins, consistent with age. The printed image remains clean and attractive, with strong blues, blacks and greens and good gradation in the sky and water. Please review all photographs carefully, as they form part of the condition description.

About the Series: The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō, also known as the Sixty-Nine Stations of the Nakasendō, was created by Keisai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige during the 1830s. The series follows the inland highway connecting Edo and Kyoto and is regarded, alongside Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, as one of the great achievements of 19th-century Japanese landscape printmaking.

Authenticity: This is a genuine traditionally produced Japanese woodblock reprint of Hiroshige’s Nagakubo design, published by Dai-ichi Kōgei. It is not being represented as an original Edo-period impression.