Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 1864) Japanese wood block prints, comprising three sets of oban diptych...

拍品描述

Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 1864) Japanese wood block prints, comprising three sets of oban diptychs depicting scenes from Kabuki plays: Ume yanagi sakigake zoshi, Kanadehon Chushingura, Satomi Hakkenden; another set of diptych with ladies standing by the river; four single oban prints depicting actors Onoe Kikugorô III and Onoe Kikugorô IV, two others depicting warriors, approx. 23.5 x 33.7 cm (8). The reverse of each ukiyo-e in this lot is mounted with fragments of Japanese land registers (土地台帳, tochi daichō), including applications for name correction (名前更正願) and name amendment records (名前訂正), issued in Meiji 25 (1892) in the villages of Tadao (忠生村), Yokoyama (横山村), Asakawa (浅川村), Moto-Hachiōji (元八王子村) and Nanao (七生村), Minami-Tama District (南多摩郡), Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県). Also including a vehicle control record sheet bearing the stamp of the Ebara District Office (荏原郡役所), Tokyo Prefecture (東京府). Following the establishment of the Meiji government, private land ownership was formally recognised and the taxation system shifted from the feudal annual tribute system (nengu) to a land tax system (chiso). This was followed by the implementation of the Land Tax Reform, under which taxes were paid in cash at a fixed rate, marking the emergence of a modern taxation system in Japan. Introduced from 1874 onwards, land registers (土地台帳, tochi daichō) were official government records created to document land ownership and facilitate taxation. Their contents typically included the land number (地番), land classification (地目), area measurement (反別), land value (地價), together with the signatures and seals of the relevant officials. Following the tax reforms of 1950, under which the land tax system was abolished and responsibility for collecting fixed asset tax was transferred to local municipalities, land registers gradually lost their administrative function and were subsequently transferred to the custody of the Legal Affairs Bureau (法務局) from around the 1960s. Officials whose signatures or seals appear on these documents include Utsumi Tadakatsu (內海忠勝), Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県知事); Kobayashi Gibei (小林儀兵衛), Village Head of Asakawa (浅川村長); *Tōzō (*藤藏), Village Head of Yokoyama (横山村長); Shimizu Chōzaemon (清水長左衛門), Deputy Village Head of Nanao (七生村助役); Aoki Matsubei (青木松兵衛), Deputy Village Head of Moto-Hachiōji (元八王子村助役); and Moriya Gozaemon (守屋五左衛門), Deputy Village Head of Tadao (忠生村助役, later Village Head).

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