Moonlight at Ryogoku
Woodblock Print
1856 (made)
1856 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The view in this uchiwa-e (rigid fan print) design by Hiroshige is taken from the western bank of the Sumida river, upstream from the Ryogku Bridge. It is still busy in the moonlight, but not so thronged with people as it would have been earlier in the evening. We are looking south-east from the upper floor of a restaurant in the area to the north of Yanagibashi, the bridge that crosses the Kanda river where it flows into the Sumida river in the north-east corner of Edo's Northern Nihonbashi district. Pleasure boats of various configurations and sizes ride the waters of the river, which flows south towards the Shin-Ohashi Bridge on the horizon. This is the second of a set of three designs unusual for the way in which the distance between viewer and subject progressively decreases, so that the focus of attention shifts from an overall view in the first design to a stylishly clad woman in the third. In this respect it anticipates the sort of experimentation seen in Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the first design of which appeared a month after this series was published.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Titles |
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Materials and techniques | Colour print from woodblocks |
Brief description | Woodblock print, 'Moonlight at Ryogoku' from the series 'Famous Places of Edo Compared to Sun, Moon and Stars' by Utagawa Hiroshige, fan print, Japan, 1856. |
Physical description | Fan print, aiban size. Artist signature: Hiroshige ga. Publisher mark: Ibaya Senzaburo. Censorship seal: aratame. Date seal: Dragon 1 (1856/1). |
Style | |
Credit line | R. Leicester Harmsworth Gift |
Place depicted | |
Summary | The view in this uchiwa-e (rigid fan print) design by Hiroshige is taken from the western bank of the Sumida river, upstream from the Ryogku Bridge. It is still busy in the moonlight, but not so thronged with people as it would have been earlier in the evening. We are looking south-east from the upper floor of a restaurant in the area to the north of Yanagibashi, the bridge that crosses the Kanda river where it flows into the Sumida river in the north-east corner of Edo's Northern Nihonbashi district. Pleasure boats of various configurations and sizes ride the waters of the river, which flows south towards the Shin-Ohashi Bridge on the horizon. This is the second of a set of three designs unusual for the way in which the distance between viewer and subject progressively decreases, so that the focus of attention shifts from an overall view in the first design to a stylishly clad woman in the third. In this respect it anticipates the sort of experimentation seen in Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the first design of which appeared a month after this series was published. |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.2908-1913 |
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Record created | March 12, 2003 |
Record URL |
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