Sugoroku of Looking Out from Ryōunkaku, Asakusa Park, Utagawa Kunisada III; Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō | Mia

parcheesi board: brick tower on street with people looking out of nearly every window; kites flying in sky; man hanging from balloon in UL throwing confetti; people walking, talking, carrying balloons on the street below; sky is richly colored blue, white, and red; flap at ULC with man descending in balloon throwing confetti placed over similar figure on ULC of print — Sugoroku of Looking Out from Ryōunkaku, Asakusa Park, November 1890
Utagawa Kunisada III; Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation 2015.79.235
Not on View
Sugoroku is a popular Japanese board game played similarly to “Snakes and Ladders.” Edo-period publishers produced Sugoroku boards like this one in a variety of themes, everything from classical literature to erotica. Here, the game board is formed by a famous building, the Ryōunkaku, with players progressing from bottom to top along its windows, which are each numbered. Ryōunkaku was a twelve-story skyscraper—Japan’s first—constructed in 1890 in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. It was one of the city’s most visible landmarks until it was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.

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Details

Title: Sugoroku of Looking Out from Ryōunkaku, Asakusa Park
Dated: November 1890
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada III; Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō
Nationality: Japanese
Artist Life: 1848 - 1920
Role: Artist
Gallery: Not on View
Department: Asian Art
Dimension: 37 3/8 × 14 11/16 in. (94.93 × 37.31 cm) (sheet, vertical tetraptych of horizontal ōban)
Credit: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation
Accession Number: 2015.79.235
Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Country: Japan
Century: 19th century
Rights: Public Domain
Classification: Prints
Object Name: Print (ukiyo-e / kaika-e)
Catalogue Raisonne: Murase, Art through a Lifetime, no. 505
Wikipedia: Cite this information
Metadata: Click here to see the machine readable JSON data that underpins this page.
Curator Approved: This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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