Hiroshige: Towboats Along the Yotsugi-dôri Canal (Totsugi-dôri yôsui hikifune) (SOLD)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Title: Towboats Along the Yotsugi-dôri Canal (Totsugi-dôri yôsui hikifune)
Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Meisho Edo Hyakkei
Date: 1857

Passengers relax as their boats are towed by hand along the only towboat canal in Edo, the Yotsugi-dôri Canal. The Canal began as an aqueduct in 1659, but in later centuries it was used by farmers for transport and then to serve passengers. Hiroshige was so fond of a curving or zigzag eyeline that he created this curve in in the canal for dramatic impact, although the canal was in reality arrow-straight. The red bokashi on the cloud-mist is another charming Hiroshige touch.

Dimensions: ôban (36.8 x 24.5 cm)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: Henry Smith II: “Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”, plate 33. See Brooklyn Museum example online. 
Seal: Aratame and the year seal snake (1857)
Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIR516