diptych print
- Museum number
- 1925,1016,0.2
- Title
- Object: Chiho sokuryo no zu 地方測量之図 (Picture of Land Surveyors)
- Description
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Colour woodblock print, diptych. Regional land-survey, figures with technical instruments going about work, with inscription.
- Production date
- 1848 (third month)
- Dimensions
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Height: 39.50 centimetres
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Width: 53.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 2017
The print shows samurai officials surveying land along a coast. Some are measuring with rulers between marker posts, others are using large and small theodolites. The signature tells us that Hokusai is eighty-nine and the text, signed by Umemura Tokubei Shigeyoshi, ‘pupil of Professor Hankei Hasegawa’, is dated third month, 1848. This is thus one of the last known dated single-sheet prints by Hokusai. The text celebrates the achievements of master surveyor Hasegawa Zenzaemon II (Hankei, 1810–1887) and his adoptive father, the late Hasegawa Zenzaemon I (1782–1839), a famous mathematician. It also gives instructions for beginners on the basics of surveying. The print was apparently distributed to celebrate the qualification of three new surveyors, from two fiefs, all pupils of Zenzaemon II. A printed wrapper survives, with the title ‘Picture of surveying’ (Ryōchi no zu).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2017 8 July - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2017 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
2022 16 Apr-12 Jun, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Hokusai from the British Museum
2023–2024 Oct-Jan, Santa Ana, CA, USA, Bowers Museum, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
- Acquisition date
- 1925
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1925,1016,0.2
