Collections: Asian Art: Seido and Kanda River From Shohei Bridge, No. 47 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

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Seido and Kanda River From Shohei Bridge, No. 47 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

• Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando), Japanese, 1797-1858
• Medium: Woodblock print
• Place Made: Japan
• Dates: 9th month of 1857
• Period: Edo Period, Ansei Era
• Dimensions: 14 1/4 x 9 5/16in. (36.2 x 23.7cm) Sheet: 14 1/4 x 9 5/16 in. (36.2 x 23.7 cm) Image: 13 x 8 1/2 in. (33 x 21.6 cm)
• Collections: Asian Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 30.1478.47
• Credit Line: Gift of Anna Ferris
• Image: Overall, 30.1478.47_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858). Seido and Kanda River From Shohei Bridge, No. 47 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 9th month of 1857. Woodblock print, 14 1/4 x 9 5/16in. (36.2 x 23.7cm) Sheet: 14 1/4 x 9 5/16 in. (36.2 x 23.7 cm) Image: 13 x 8 1/2 in. (33 x 21.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.47 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 30.1478.47_PS1.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: From the Shohei Bridge we look down on the Kanda River, with its beautifully shaded green banks rising high on each side. The banks were not this high in reality, but this is Hiroshige's way of portraying this man-made channel, which was carved through the Kanda Mountain in 1610 to divert the flood-prone Hira River. On the right are the outer walls of the compound where a shrine (dedicated to Confucius) and its affiliated Confucian college were located; the slope is known as Shoheizaka, which takes its name from Changping in the Chinese state of Lu, where Confucius was born more than five centuries before Christ. The shrine today survives as a center of Chinese culture, and the college at the crest of the hill is today the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. There are three prints of rain in this series, all in the "summer" group and this view is of the steady slanting type typical of the June baiu ("plum rain," after the fruit that appears then). In the river below are boatmen from the lumberyards of Yushima Yokocho, wearing straw raincoats, poling their cargo. Seals in top margin: date seal and censor seal. No publisher's seal visible probably lost when left margin was trimmed. Top margin, written in pencil "Near Seido". Top right margin No. 46 (Accession card)