Skip Navigation

Hatsune Riding Grounds, Bakuro-cho, No. 6 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Utagawa Hiroshige

Asian Art

The three colorful strips of cloth in the foreground of this print are not celebratory banners but bolts of cloth that dyers have hung out to dry. Hiroshige emphasizes the cloth's materiality by embossing a textured weave pattern on the surface of the white bolt. In the distance stands one of the many fire-watch towers scattered throughout the city. The buildings below were largely devoted to lodging visitors to Edo, maintaining the long-established function of this site as a point of entry and departure for travelers from the north.

MEDIUM Woodblock print
  • Place Made: Japan
  • DATES 9th month of 1857
    PERIOD Edo Period, Ansei Era
    DIMENSIONS Image: 13 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. (33.7 x 21.9 cm) Sheet: 14 3/8 x 9 3/16 in. (36.5 x 23.3 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS No publisher's seal visible, probably lost when left edge was trimmed,
    SIGNATURE Hiroshige-ga
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 30.1478.6
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Anna Ferris
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Spring scene of the open space known as Hatsune no Baba, located in downtown Edo not far from Asakusa Gate. This space was originally a horse-riding grounds (baba) for practice by the shogun's retainers, the oldest of several such in Edo (see Pl. 115 for another). By Hiroshige's time, however, it no longer played a role in the defense of Edo but was now retained as an idle space in a crowded part of the city, with willows planted around its perimeter. This print provides evidence that dyers from Kon ya-cho, several blocks to the west (see Pl. 75) had taken to using the space for drying their cloth, three blots of which are strung between posts in the foreground. In the background to the left is a watchtower for fires. The buildings below are largely devoted to lodgings for visitors to Edo, maintaining the long-established function of this site at a point of entry and departure along the Oshu highway for travelers from the north. The open area, besides being used for drying newly dyed cloth, was also used at night by nearby match makers for testing the quality of their sulphur. Difficult to see in reproduction is the textured cloth pattern on the white strip of cloth, created by a technique known as nunome-zuri, "fabric-printing." This technique was used frequently in the first paintings of the "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," most commonly in the title cartouches, but also as here when actual fabric was depicted. It was achieved by pressing a piece of silk into the moistened paper, leaving the pattern of the weave delicately embossed on the surface.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). Hatsune Riding Grounds, Bakuro-cho, No. 6 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 9th month of 1857. Woodblock print, Image: 13 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. (33.7 x 21.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.6 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 30.1478.6_PS20.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 30.1478.6_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2023
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
    This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.