Illustration of products in Yoshida

Date:: 1804
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

Later reprint or reproduction (20th-century): $50–$300
Good later impression (Edo-period): $1,000–$5,000
Good early impression (vivid color, legible detail): $5,000–$20,000
Fine early impression (exceptional color and condition): $20,000–$60,000

Hokusai's genre scenes, bijin-ga (beautiful women), and miscellaneous subjects represent the breadth of his career across more than seven decades. The market for non-landscape Hokusai prints has strengthened as collectors seek beyond the most famous designs.

Description

Regional craft products from Yoshida post town on the Tokaido highway — a place associated with trade in lacquerware and other specialties — are depicted in this color woodblock print from 1804. The illustration is part of Hokusai's broader documentary interest in local industry and material culture, treating manufactured goods with the same compositional precision he brought to natural scenery.