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Meiji prints

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	Design:	Kobayashi Kiyoshika (1847-1915)
	Title:	Rain at Shin Ōhashi bridge, Tokyo
	Size:	21.7 x 33.3 cm (aiban)
	Posthumous printing from newly cut woodblocks
	Photography:	Jacques Commandeur

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Enlargement

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Originally published in 1876 by publisher Matsuki Heikichi (松木平吉). This edition published ca. 1950s by publisher Maria Shobo (マリア書房).

Artist’s name in red cartouche in lower left of the print area:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
小	ko	small
林	hayashi	woods
清	kiyo	purify	Design by
親	shita	intimate	Kobayashi
筆	hitsu	writing brush	Kiyochika

Print title (from right to left) in top margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
東	tō	east
京	kyō	capital
新	shin	new
大	ō	large
橋	hashi	bridge
雨	ame	rain
中	naka	middle	Rain at Shin Ōhashi
図	zu	drawing	bridge, Tokyo

Original publishing date in right margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
明	mei	light	Published in
治	ji	government	the Meiji era,
九	kyū	nine	the 9th year
年	nen	year	(= 1876),
八	hachi	eight	the 8th month
月	gatsu	month	(= August)

Publisher’s address and name in left margin:

Character	Reading	Meaning	Translation
吉	yoshi	good luck
川	kawa	river
町	chō	street	Yoshikawa quarter,
貮	niji	number two
番	ban	number
地	chi	land	number 2,
松	matsu	pine
木	kei	tree
平	hei	peace
吉	kichi	good luck	published by
版	han	edition	Matsukei Heikichi

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On this print Henry D. Smith (1988) comments: ‘ In View of Rainfall on Shin-ou-hashi in To-kei, one of the finest of Kiyochika’s prints, we see the theme of bridging that preoccupied the artist from the very start. The actual bridge in question is Shin-Ōhashi, “New Great Bridge”, which crossed the Sumida river half a mile south of Ryōgoku Bridge. The view is to the north, from the Fukagawa side of the river, and the green rise in the distance is a grass-covered shallows that may be found on Meiji maps. This is the same bridge that Hiroshige depicted in his famous view of a sudden cloudburst in “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”. Kiyochika’s rain, however, is far gentler, indeed only hinted at by the somber grey clouds, the puddles on the road, and the umbrella of the solitary figure to the lower right. This figure, a woman with her boldly striped kimono hitched up to reveal a red undergarment, seizes the imagination. With her back to us, she moves out of the picture - perhaps to return and cross the bridge, perhaps to disappear into the city. The boldness of her clothing sets her apart from the delicacy of the landscape; the grey mists of the distant hills and the shimmering reflections of the water below, laced with subtle tones of blue and pink.’

For more information on Shin Ōhashi bridge, please visit my Ehon Sumidagawa website.

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References

• Hokkaidō Obihiro Museum Of Art (1998). Meiji no ukiyo-e hanga (Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Meiji period). Hokkaidō: Hokkaidō Obihiro Museum Of Art and Hokkaidō Shinbun Press.

• Smith, Henry D. (1988). Kiyochika. Artist of Meiji Japan. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

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Provenance: Fuji Arts