Postcard reproduction (partial) of Hiroshige’s “Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa”, Tokyo, c. 1940.

Postcard reproduction (partial) of Hiroshige Utagawa’s “Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa”, Tokyo, in the snow. The original, first printed in 1856 as #99 of Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”, was framed with a large chochin [paper lantern] in the upper-right quarter and the suggestion of an open gate along the left side, removed (presumably) to avoid them from dominating the same snow-laden landscape portrayed in the much-smaller reproduction published c. 1940 by S. Watanabe, Tokyo. It was said of the original woodblock print that it commemorated the restoration of the pagoda after damage suffered in the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake and subsequent fires that destroyed 50,000 buildings, and killed upwards of 10,000 people, in the Tokugawa capital.

“Some prints of Medium and Post-card sizes are pictures reproduced from the masterpieces by Hiroshige, Hokusai and Utamarao, etc.

The completee “Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa”, Hiroshige, 1856, as displayed at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Asia Art.

“[To reproduce] the old color prints, photographs are taken in diminished sizes and are pasted on woodblocks. Then black lines are engraved first, after which color-blocks are made from the sheets colored on the black lines. Because they are diminished to about one-tenth of the actual regular size, the engraving requires much skill and technique.

“By ‘reproductions’ we mean the masterpieces of the great ukiyoe (color–print) masters reprinted as nearly as possible like the originals, with the same technique and still as in olden times. Such reproductions serve the purpose of enabling us to appreciate the composition and coloring of the originals, which are usually very rare.”

– Watanabe Shozaburo, publisher, 1962, S. Watanabe Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo