Hiroshige I, Utagawa (Japan, 1797-1858): 'Toto yukimi hakkei' - 'Eight snow scenes in the eastern capital', publ. in 1928 by Shotaro Sato

Dim.: 44,5 x 32,5 cm (the folder)
Dim.: ca. 39,5 x 26,5 cm (each sheet)
Dim.: ca. 34,2 x 24,5 cm (each print)

in 1928, Mr. Shotaro Sato, a considerable publisher from Kyoto, gave the announcement that he published a hitherto unknown series of eight prints by Hiroshige I, from the artist’s original drawings in the possession of Mr. Emile Javal, a judge in the Civil Court of the Seine, Paris, France. These drawings were executed in the period between the last two years of Tempo to the end of Koka  (1842-1847), which may be called Hiroshige’s golden age, when his art reached its fullest maturity. How it happened that they were not then engraved and published, but were carried away to Europe, is an unexplained mystery. As they bear impressions of the seal of the Nanushi (ward head-man) Mr. Fukatsu Ihei, who acted as an official censor of publications in the fourth and eleventh month of the years from 1840 to 1847, it is evident that their publication was intended and had been approved.

A comprehensive study is available here.
Other sets are in the Van Vleck Collection at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, the Albuquerque Museum and the library of the Fogg Museum, Boston.