It does not seem to be purely accidental, as there are too many prints with this name on them. It is not known whether this was simply a playful joke, of the kind often found in print titles, or if there was some other reason. The translation 'Bay Capital' (in the sense of 'capital on the bay') has been chosen for it; this also happens to be the literal translation of those two characters.
Prints in all of the series covered here do not appear to have any numbers on them; any number given here is for local reference only.
To see a larger image of any print, please click on the thumbnail.
It is not clear if this group of prints is one series, or two. At the very
least, there are two editions; the first edition of 1832-34, and a later
edition of 1839-42; the latter has a different version of the publisher's
seal (Sanoki, instead of Kikakudō).
It is not clear if an earlier series was re-printed at a later date (perhaps
with some additions/changes), or if there was a later series done on the
theme of the earlier one. A search will have to be instituted for 'early' and
'late' versions of all the prints shown here; with that data in hand, it may
become clearer what's actually going on here.
(I.e. if there are many prints which exist in both 'early' and 'late'
versions, it's probably one series which was re-printed later, perhaps with
some additions/changes. However, if most prints seem to exist in only one
version, that would tend to indicate two separate series.)
The differences between the two views of Kasumigaseki does not really make
things clear: although they may be different prints from different series, it
is also possible that the blocks used for the earlier version were damaged,
or lost, during the period between the two editions.
This may also be the same series as a
series
with a similar 'Tōto' name.
Famous Places in the Bay Capital - Mid-1830's to Early 1840's
Characteristics: Single vertical cartouche with rounded top and
inverse rounded bottom in right margin
Publisher: Kikakudō (Sanoki - Sanoya Kihei)
Like the previous series, this may be the same series as another series with a similar 'Edo' name.
Thanks also to Fuji Arts, whose Web-site was the source of many additional prints; the Museum of Fine Arts, whose excellent Web-site of their collection provided many images, captions, etc; and John Resig, whose Japanese Woodblock Print Search site has been a great help in locating good images of these prints.
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Last updated: 1/July/2019