82 Utagawa Hiroshige 1797 – 1858 Swallow and sweetfish

Japan, late 19th / early 20th century (later edition)

This elegant and highly atmospheric sheet is a high-quality later edition, traditionally cataloged at international auctions (such as Christie's) under the designation "After Utagawa Hiroshige". The composition masterfully utilizes the narrow chūtanzaku format to capture a fleeting scene in heavy rain. The dark silhouette of a swallow in mid-flight contrasts sharply with the detailed sweetfish swimming agilely near a rough wooden bridge piling in the lower section. The upper section of the scene is classically complemented by delicate calligraphy. Although it is a later 19th/20th-century printing, the sheet retains all the poetics and technological purity for which Japanese kachō-ga (bird-and-flower) woodblock prints are so highly prized.