Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) | Crab on the shore | Edo period, 19th century

Gerhard Pulverer (b. 1930)

Doitsu Puruvera korekushon ukiyo-e hanga meihinten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Pulverer Collection], exhibited at the following venues: 

Matsuzakaya Department Store, Osaka, 27^th December 1990 - 8^th January 1991

Matsuzakaya Department Store, Ginza, 24^th - 29^th January 1991

Narazaki Muneshige, ed., Hizo ukiyo-e taikan, Puruvera korekushon [Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western Collections: The Pulverer Collection] (Tokyo, 1990), no. 81.

Doitsu Puruvera korekushon ukiyo-e hanga meihinten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Pulverer Collection] (Tokyo, 1990), p. 59, no. 2-13. 

The poem by Bunso Takemasa has been translated in Charlotte van Rappard-Boon et al., Surimono: Poetry and Image in Japanese Prints (The Netherlands, 2000), p. 51: 

The warbler sings

to the moon and stars

at Susaki Bay

as the sun rises auspiciously

at the dawn of spring

Tsukibosho o

to uguisu no

Suzakiura

hatsuhi medetaki

haru no akebono

The second poem by Bunbunsha Kanikomaru (1780-1837) has been translated as:

It is morning now —

yonder the hazy shore

a crab

slowly sidles along

the path of the sun

Kesa to nareba wa

kasumi no umigoshi o

kani no

ito yutsu tari to

ayumu hi no ashi

A similar impression of the same print is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object number RP-P-1987-32.