Meiji prints
| Design: | Kobayashi Kiyoshika (1847-1915) | |||||
| Title: | Distant view of Ryōgoku from Moto Yanagi bridge | |||||
| Size: | 20.3 x 32.1 cm (aiban) | |||||
| Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally published in 1879 by publisher Fukuda Kumajirō (福田熊治良). This edition published ca. 1950s by publisher Maria Shobo (マリア書房).
Artist’s name in white (from right to left) in bottom of the print area:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 小 | ko | small | |
| 林 | hayashi | woods | |
| 清 | kiyo | purify | Designed by |
| 親 | shita | intimate | Kobayashi |
| 筆 | hitsu | brush | Kiyochika |
Print title (from right to left) in bottom margin:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 元 | moto | old | |
| 柳 | yanagi | willow | |
| 橋 | hashi | bridge | |
| 両 | ryō | two | |
| 国 | goku | provinces | Distant view of |
| 遠 | en | distant | Ryōgoku from |
| 景 | kei | view | Moto Yanagi bridge |
On this print Henry D. Smith (1988) comments: ‘The Moto-Yanagi Bridge (“Former Willow Bridge”) in the title ... was so named because a new Willow Bridge (Yanagibashi) had been built over the Kanda river to the north. Moto-Yanagi bridge itself spanned a small canal that flowed into the Sumida river, but is in fact out of sight in the print; its appearance in the title rather indicates our point of view, as though we had just crossed the bridge and were proceeding north along the west bank of the Sumida, with the silhouette of Ryōgoku Bridge visible in the distance.’
For more information on Moto Yanagi and Ryōgoku bridge, please visit my Ehon Sumidagawa website.
References
- Narazaki, Muneshige, ed. (1990). Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western collections. The Robert O. Muller Collection. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
- Smith, Henry D. (1988). Kiyochika. Artist of Meiji Japan. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Provenance: Fuji Arts