Skip Navigation

Dam on the Otonashi River at Oji, No. 19 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Utagawa Hiroshige

Asian Art

This dam was built in 1657 to control the stretch of the Shakujii River known as the Otonashi and to divert part of the flow into irrigation canals leading through fertile rice paddies. This stretch of the river is one of several place names in the Ōji area that were borrowed from the Kumano region to the west of Edo in the Kii Peninsula, in deference to the dedication of Ōji Gongen Shrine to the gods of Kumano. Ōji Gongen Shrine still stands on the bluff across the Otonashi River from Asukayama, or just to the right of the point where Hiroshige has placed us in this view.

MEDIUM Woodblock print
  • Place Made: Japan
  • DATES 2nd month of 1857
    PERIOD Edo Period, Ansei Era
    DIMENSIONS Image: 13 15/16 x 8 15/16 in. (35.4 x 22.7 cm) Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. (36 x 23.5 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Hiroshige-ga; publisher: Shitaya Uo Ei
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 30.1478.19
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Anna Ferris
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Cherry blossom scene showing people swimming in the Otonashi River below the falls. This man-made "Great Waterfall" has been greatly exaggerated in height by the artist. Above, the Kinrinji Temple, where visitors rest inside a pavilion, today has been reduced to two small lots on the sites of former subtemples. By the 1960's the Otonashi River had been reduced to a concrete channel, but in 1985 a three year construction plan was begun to revive and beautify the 100 meter length of the river seen in this view and will be filled with rocks, bounded by strolling paths, pavilions and cherry trees.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858). Dam on the Otonashi River at Oji, No. 19 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 2nd month of 1857. Woodblock print, Image: 13 15/16 x 8 15/16 in. (35.4 x 22.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.19 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 30.1478.19_PS20.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 30.1478.19_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.