Uehara Konen, A Junk at Arakawa River (Pre-Earthquake)

Notes: Still tipped to the original mount; never framed or displayed. Kobayashi Bunshichi (1864-1898) publishers' cartouche, which are thought to be the publisher's system of numbering the designs issued for distribution. In the 1936 catalog, S. Watanabe stated that Uehara Konen studied painting with Kajita Hanko and Matsuomoto Fuko. He started producing woodcuts with the publisher Kobayashi Bunshichi, the son of a wealthy family in Asakusa who established a print shop in the Komakata district of Asakusa in 1887. In reference material, S. Watanabe suggested, 'Over 30 years ago, Konen had an experience to produce small color-prints intended for the United States market'. According to the Tokyo publisher Nishinomiya in a letter dated 1976 presently in the Muller archives Kobayashi's shop was destroyed by the 1923 Kanto earthquake. This loss, together with the death of the founder, Bunshichi, in the same year, sealed the fate of the Kobayashi shop, and it never resumed business.