Skip Navigation

Ueno Yamashita, No. 12 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Utagawa Hiroshige

Asian Art

This scene depicts the area known as Yamashita ("Below the Mountain") in Ueno Park. The abstract band of pink and yellow represents the famous cherry blossoms of Kan'eiji Temple ("The Mountain"). The small shrine hidden in the woods is Gōjō Tenjin, and the adjacent restaurant is Iseya, which advertises a rice dish blended with pickled shiso, a minty herb. The procession of parasol-covered women in the lower left corner may be a group of ladies-in-waiting. Stopping to gaze at them is a group of commoners, somewhat awkwardly diminished in size.

This print is one of three in the series that have been ascribed to Hiroshige II.

MEDIUM Woodblock print
  • Place Made: Japan
  • DATES 10th month of 1858
    PERIOD Edo Period, Ansei Era
    DIMENSIONS Image: 13 3/16 x 8 3/4 in. (33.5 x 22.2 cm) Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. (36 x 23.5 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Publisher, censor seals not visible, probably lost when left edge was trimmed.
    SIGNATURE Hiroshige-ga
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 30.1478.12
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Anna Ferris
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION This is the area down as Yamashita ("Below the Mountain"), the broad open space extending from the southern approach to Kan'eiji (the "mountain": see previous print) along around its eastern side. Here the stone-walled enclosure (the black wall at left center) leads into the temple compound. To the lower left is a procession of parasoled ladies, possibly a group of ladies-in-waiting from one of the daimyo mansions, on their way to Kan'eiji to pay their respects on the memorial day of the Tokugawa ancestor buried there and enjoying the cherry blossoms along the way. The small shrine hidden in the woods is Gojo Tenjin, and the adjacent restaurant, the Iseya, advertises a dish known as shisomeshi, rice blended with pickled shiso (a minty herb). Iseya later adopted the flying-goose motif from its ridge ornament as the basis of a new shop name, as well as a new dish: Gannabe ("goose-pot"), a kind of chicken stew. The interior here shows a fish shop below and the restaurant above; all depicted in bright detail. A flock of crows flies overhead. This is one of three prints in the "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," together with pls. 41 and 114, that bear the censor's seals for the Tenth Month of 1858, the month following Hiroshige's death. The artist may have left completed designs at the time of his death which had not been formally approved. However, the theory has been advanced that these three prints were in fact the work of Hiroshige II. Reference is made to Uchida Minoru, "Hiroshige" (1930). It may be that Hiroshige himself executed preliminary sketches and that it was only the final version which was executed after his death. It is also possible, noting the close master-disciple relations, that a disciple other than Shigenobu, the future Hiroshige II, was involved.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). Ueno Yamashita, No. 12 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 10th month of 1858. Woodblock print, Image: 13 3/16 x 8 3/4 in. (33.5 x 22.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.12 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 30.1478.12_PS20.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 30.1478.12_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2023
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
    This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.