Yoshitoshi's Publishers

This page attempts to list all the publishers Yoshitoshi worked with, and show good images of their seals.

It is currently in a draft state, and we will be exending it considerably as we get more prints online.

Publisher's Names

It should be explained that publishing houses often had a 'full' name, which usually consisted of the name of the shop and of the proprietor, from which was formed (often, but not always, by taking the first syllable of each) a shorter name.

So, the publisher "Maruya Seibei" would be from the shop Maru-ya ('-ya' being the ending for a commerical establishment), owned by Seibei; its short name would be Marusei. However, the short name often outlived the owner it was originally asociated with.

These short names are often what is given in the publisher seals. For others, sources give short names which do not correspond to either any contraction of the long name, or the characters in the seal. Presumably these short names come from either other seals used by that publisher, or from other contemporary sources, but it beyond the scope of this page to elucidate those.

Seal Readings

When seal readings are given, following the usual standard, the Chinese reading(s) are in uppercase, and the Japanese in lower. Characters are separated by '_', and alternative readings are given separated by '/'.

The character numbers, which identify the characters in the seal, are given from:

    Andrew N. Nelson, "The Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary",
	Charles E. Tuttle, Rutland, 1974

which is a standard Japanese dictionary.

Table of Publisher's Seals

Name (Romaji)	Name (Kanji)	Short name(s)	Location	Reference	Characters	Comments
Daikoku-ya Kinnosuke		Kinjirō, Daikin	Tsujiki, Odawara-chō	MFA #11.37637 Ing, #10.25 Dailey, #96	1171 4815	The seal reads: TAI/DAI/O_KON/KIN/kana
Ebi-ya Rinnosuke		Kaijudō, Ebirin	Horie-chō	Dailey, #154/#208 Lane, 314.2.9 Self, 282.2.10	2553 3683 2210	The seal reads: KAI/umi_RŌ/o_RIN/JI/shige/hayashi/mori; the first two combined can be read 'ebi'
Ki-ya Sōjirō		Kiya Kiso, Kiso		Ing, #17.2 MFA #00.1395-7	5029 955 1025 2170 1297 2268	The seal reads: SHŌ/ko/ji_kura/ku_SHI/yo MOKU/ki_SO/mune_SHI; the final SHI means "published by"
Morimoto Junsaburō	森本順三郎	Morimoto			2301 96?	The seal reads: mori_HON/moto.
Unidentified		Ohashi (Daikyōdō)		Ing, #22.47, #22.48	1171 2378	The seal reads: TAI/DAI/O_KYŌ/hashi
Ōmi-ya Kyūsuke or Sawa Kyūjirō ?		Kinkyū		MFA #11.37760, MFA #11.35910	4671 153	The seal reads: KIN/KON/chika_KYŪ/KU/hisa
Sano-ya Tomigorō		Kinseidō		MFA #11.37717	4882 3116 1365	The seal reads: KIN/nishiki_SHŌ/SEI/JŌ/saka/mo_DŌ/-dō
Seibundō Masakichi or Gifuya Seichichi		Shōbundō, Seibundō		Ing, #8.1, #12 MFA #11.16634	27 2064 1365	The seal reads: SEI/SHŌ/masa/tada_BUN/MON/fumi_DŌ
Yamaguchi-ya Tōbei		Kinkōdō, Yamaguchi	Bakuro-chō, Motohama-chō	Dailey, #129/#223 Lane, 316.3.23 Self, 287.1.2	1407 868	The seal reads: SAN/yama_Kō/KU/guchi/aki

References

Dailey: Merlin C. Dailey, David Stansbury, "Utagawa Kuniyoshi: An Exhibition of the Work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi Based on the Raymond A. Bidwell Collection of Japanese Prints at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts", Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, 1980 - Numbers refer to a publisher number in the list of Kuniyoshi's publishers in the back of the Catalog
Ing: Eric van den Ing, Robert Schaap, "Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892", Havilland, Eindhoven, 1992 - Numbers refer to prints
Lane: Richard Lane, "Images from the Floating World", Chartwell Books, Secaucus, 1978 - Numbers are page/column/item, with columns being numbered from left to right, and items from top to bottom
MFA: Museum of Fine Arts Collections - Number is accession number of item
Self: James Self, Nobuko Hirose, "Japanese Art Signatures: A Handbook and Practical Guide", Charles E. Tuttle, Rutland, 1987 - Numbers are as for Lane

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