Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Utagawa Toyohiro was the teacher of the leading landscape artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Toyohiro produced several bijinga, many book illustrations, and a small quantity of landscapes.

The series ‘The Twelve Months Designed by Two Artists, Toyokuni and Toyohiro’ was a collaborative work of two great rival artists, Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) and Toyohiro, who were both pupils of Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814). These probably comprised twelve prints of the months of the year with a seasonal theme as triptychs but only seven versions have yet been found including ‘New Year’, ‘April’ and ‘May’ by Toyokuni, and ‘February’ ‘March’, ‘June’ and ‘July’ by Toyohiro, respectively.

This print, an image of 'March’, is the left sheet of the triptych. Ladies and children of a samurai class family are watching a man at yabusame (horse archery) in the full bloom of the cherry blossom season. The complete image ‘March’ illustrates three different families wearing kosode and furisode who are watching the yabusame held in the large grounds the other side of the brown curtain. In this print, a girl is wearing a pink kimono with a crane design that matches the colour of the cherry blossom, while the lady on the left is wearing a chic brown kimono with a grey ōbi decorated with bashō (banana leaves).

The red seal in the bottom right-hand corner is that of Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906) who was a Japanese art dealer in Paris during the latter part of the 19th century.