Woodcutter Walking beside the Koya Tama River in Kii Province, from a series of Six Tama Rivers

Woodcutter Walking beside the Koya Tama River in Kii Province, from a series of Six Tama Rivers

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Utagawa Toyohiro

Early in the Edo Period, commoners in most areas were not permitted to fell trees, but rather had to gather wood from fallen trees and brush. In this print, a woodcutter carries a bundle of small branches he has cut with a sickle that hangs at his hip. The strict rules for wood gathering were widely unpopular and the Tokugawa shogunate eventually loosened the law to allow commoners to fell broadleaf trees in forests at lower elevations. This compromise ensured that a large quantity of timber could be procured from the mountains for governmental building projects, while everyday people could still build and heat their homes, all without exhausting Japan’s forests.
Artist
Utagawa Toyohiro
(Japanese, 1773 - 1828)
Title
Woodcutter Walking beside the Koya Tama River in Kii Province, from a series of Six Tama Rivers
Date
1790-1800
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
390 x 257 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3114
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 81, no. 32
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 322

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