Ōmori, from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital

Description

Sites around Edo (present-day Tokyo) were popular subjects of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) prints in the early 1800s. The calligraphy in the red circle on the upper right is the title of the series, The Famous Places in the Eastern Capital. The Ōmori district, on Edo Bay a few miles south of Edo, was known for its cultivation of nori, the crackly sheets of seaweed commonly wrapped around rice balls or sushi rolls. Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicted two women gathering seaweed from cultivation beds. One uses chopsticks, while the other gently rakes the seaweed into the baskets in their boat. The tip of another skiff behind the stand of plants on the right and the cultivation beds in the distance suggest the scale and importance of this industry.

Provenance

Hans Popper (sale: Sotheby Parke Bernet, October 6, 1972, lot 281); Eugene V. Thaw; The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, ?-1985, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899-1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?-1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1985-present (1985-)

Ōmori, from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

early 1830s

Accession Number

1985.335

Medium

Color woodblock print

Dimensions

Overall: 23.9 x 34.2 cm (9 7/16 x 13 7/16 in.)

Classification

Print

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith