Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets (Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu)
Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu
About This Series
The Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu, or Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets, is one of the most ambitious mitate projects of the late Edo period and was produced collaboratively by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Utagawa Kunisada in the late 1840s under the imprint of one of the major Edo publishers. The series takes as its premise the celebrated Hyakunin isshu anthology, compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirteenth century and known to virtually every literate inhabitant of Edo through the karuta card game and through standard editions of classical verse. Each sheet illustrates one of the one hundred poems through an apparently unrelated figure or narrative episode drawn from history, legend, kabuki, or contemporary life, with the connection between poem and image relying on the mitate strategy of analogical substitution. As a print project, the series combines the calligraphic transcription of the classical waka in a top cartouche with a full-color figural composition below, allowing the buyer to read each sheet as both literary anthology and dramatic image. Kuniyoshi's contribution focuses on heroic and historical episodes drawn from his deep musha-e repertoire, while Kunisada provides theatrical and bijinga compositions and Hiroshige supplies landscape settings. Modern scholarship has come to see the project as exemplary of the late Edo mitate sensibility, in which classical authority is transformed through unexpected visual analogy into popular entertainment without losing its cultural prestige. The series is also a useful index of the collaborative economy of late Edo print publishing, in which the three leading designers of the Utagawa school could be brought together by a single publisher on a project of literary ambition. Collectors today value the cycle both for its individual sheets and as a record of the Utagawa school at its mid-century apex.
Prints in This Series (2)
Frequently Asked Questions
The Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu, or Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets, is one of the most ambitious mitate projects of the late Edo period and was produced collaboratively by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Utagawa Kunisada in the late 1840s under the imprint of one of the major Edo publishers. The series takes as its premise the celebrated Hyakunin isshu anthology, compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirteenth century and known to virtually every literate inhabitant of Edo through the karuta card game and through standard editions of classical verse. Each sheet illustrates one of the one hundred poems through an apparently unrelated figure or narrative episode drawn from history, legend, kabuki, or contemporary life, with the connection between poem and image relying on the mitate strategy of analogical substitution. As a print project, the series combines the calligraphic transcription of the classical waka in a top cartouche with a full-color figural composition below, allowing the buyer to read each sheet as both literary anthology and dramatic image. Kuniyoshi's contribution focuses on heroic and historical episodes drawn from his deep musha-e repertoire, while Kunisada provides theatrical and bijinga compositions and Hiroshige supplies landscape settings. Modern scholarship has come to see the project as exemplary of the late Edo mitate sensibility, in which classical authority is transformed through unexpected visual analogy into popular entertainment without losing its cultural prestige. The series is also a useful index of the collaborative economy of late Edo print publishing, in which the three leading designers of the Utagawa school could be brought together by a single publisher on a project of literary ambition. Collectors today value the cycle both for its individual sheets and as a record of the Utagawa school at its mid-century apex.
The Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets (Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu) series contains 2 prints, created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
The Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets (Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu) series was created by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).
We currently have 2 of 2 known prints from the Ogura Versions of the One Hundred Poets (Ogura nazorae Hyakunin isshu) series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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