Inoue Yasuji (井上安治).1864-1889Tokyo Ueno Taksaki gai shinkei.1884Translated title: [True views of Tokyo's Ueno (railroad station) and Takasaki City]Colour woodblock triptych. Overall size of the three jointed prints, 713x358 mm, trimmed within margin. Signed “Inoue Tankei”. Title and signature in the lower right pane. Next to it, two square red seals. Some slight defect and small losses along the margins, otherwise good condition.

Further Details

The print is divided into two sections: the upper portion depicts Takasaki City (Gunma Prefecture) with its dwellings, street scenes, railroad station, and a train approaching the city; the lower portion shows a departing train at the Ueno station with decorative flag poles and viewers against the background of the Ueno park filled with cherry blossoms. The scenes show the opening ceremony of the railway connecting Ueno (Tokyo) and Takasaki, one of the most important silk fabric centers.Inoue Yasuji 井上安治 (1864-1889) [aka Inoue Tankei 井上探景], was Kobayashi Kiyochika's (1847-1915) only true disciple. By the time Kiyochika gave up Western-style landscapes in 1881, Yasuji had designed only eight prints in his own name, but he perpetuated his master’s style over the next three years, particularly in the format of small postcard-size prints, reaching a total of 134 by 1884, with his best known series of small prints being titled Tokyo meisho (Famous Views of Tokyo). He also created prints that were nearly identical to those of Kiyochika’s as in the example below.Like his master, Yasuji would produce several versions of the same print, for instance, one at daylight and one at night. Yasuji’s landscape work has a greater clarity than that of his teacher, and tends to be less dramatic or sentimental. In 1884, however, he completely abandoned this style and turned to conventional nishiki-e triptychs depicting the sights and events of the day in the traditional heroic style, working under the name of Tankei 探景, which the publisher Matsuki Heikichi bestowed on him in 1884. One specimen at the Smithsonian Museum.