Hiroshige II's series 'Eight Views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei)' (1859)



Introduction


This page attempts to catalog all known prints in
Hiroshige II's
series 'Ōmi hakkei (近江 八 景 - Eight
Views of Ōmi)'.




The series title is in the rectangular cartouche in the top right corner; the
title of each individual print is in the square cartouche.




The series dates from the early middle of Hiroshige II's career, when he
was about thirty-three years old. At this point, he had just
using the name
'Hiroshige', since his master
Hiroshige I
had just died (in 1858), and Hiroshige II had taken over the
gō
'Hiroshige'; the prints in this series are signed 'Nisei Hiroshige' (i.e.
"Hiroshige, second of the name").




Formalized series of landscape views on eight particular themes of the Xiao
and Xiang Rivers, the rivers and wetlands around Lake Donting, developed in
Eleventh Century China. The idea was imported to Japan along with much else
from Chinese culture; series on this theme appear throughout Japanese
woodblocks. The eight themes were descending geese, returning sails, clearing
mist, twilight snow, autumn moon, night rain, vesper bells, and evening
glow; all eminently suited to evocative landscape images. 








Technical details










The Prints


To see a larger, roughly full-screen, image of any print, please click on the
thumbnail; these images are sized to produce fine detail, and are only moderately
compressed.








Images
Number
Date
Title (Kanji)
Title (Romaji)
Title (English)
Description








#3
1859/2
粟津 晴嵐
Awazu seiran
Clearing Weather at Awazu

  






#4
1859/2
比良 暮雪
Hira bosetsu
Twilight Snow at Mount Hira

  






#5
1859/2
石山 秋月
Ishiyama shūgetsu
Autumn Moon at Ishiyama Temple

  






#6
1859/2
唐崎 夜雨
Karasaki no yau
Night Rain at Karasaki

  















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© Copyright 2009 by J. Noel Chiappa



Last updated: 14/June/2009