Mariko: The Famous Tea Shop
Utagawa Hiroshige, c. 1833–34
No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, Wrong shape: a 15% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.
See pieces like it you can buyTwo travelers rest at a thatched roadside teahouse in early spring, bowls of the local specialty in hand — tororo-jiru, grated-yam soup — while the proprietress serves with a child slung on her back. This teahouse and its yam soup were already literature: Bashō had fixed Mariko’s tororo-jiru in a haiku a century and a half earlier, so Hiroshige is printing a landmark every literate traveler would greet like an old friend. The shop sign hawks the meibutsu — the famous thing — to the road; plum branches are just breaking into blossom overhead, Bashō’s season for the dish. A famous meal is still just lunch, warm on a cold road.
- Maker
- Utagawa Hiroshige
- Date
- c. 1833–34
- Medium of the original
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Rights
- Cleared for print
- Catalogue number
- PA-00387
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 12 x 8 in | 140 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 14 x 11 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 16 x 12 in | 95 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 18 x 12 in | 93 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 24 x 16 in | 70 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 24 x 18 in | 63 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 20 in | 56 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 36 x 24 in | 46 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 30 in | 38 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 31 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | 28 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 1,686 x 1,147 px, srgb
- Tone
- Darks 60, lights 226 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 31.33
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
The Floating World
Japanese woodblock prints, from ukiyo-e to Yoshitoshi, Goyō, Hasui and Yoshida.
All 64 pieces from The Floating World
