Hiroshige 広重: Yatsukoji, inside Sujikai Gate 筋違内八ッ小路

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige 広重 (1797-1858)
Title: Yatsukoji, inside Sujikai Gate 筋違内八ッ小路

Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo 名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei
Date: 1857

We peer down at the large thoroughfare Yatsukoji, or “The Eight Streets”, meaning a place where many roads converge. This one is on the road leading north from Nihonbashi, the Kanda River embankment seen at right. Hiroshige  has evidently put to good use his previous experience as a fire warden, which likely meant many hours spent in fire towers, looking down at the activities of of the townspeople of Edo unfolding far below. This dealer always wondered how his bird’s eye views were so compelling, and it was the recent NHK dramatic (soapy) special on the artist that showed Hiroshige spending time in fire towers prior “making it” as a successful print artist that does lead one to connect the dots. We also see the strong Hiroshige diagonals that are often seen with this series, and the rather large empty space in the middle of the composition also reflects Hiroshige’s fondness for indirect views. At left we see the mansion of a daimyo, and lower left is a procession that includes ladies-in-waiting at the front, indicating that the person in the red-topped palanquin is a woman, perhaps the wife of a daimyo. It is very interesting to see from above all the pomp and circumstance related to the movements of a regional lord. Red mists hug the river at right, and a hill rises behind what must be the gatehouse to the head of the unseen Shoeibashi bridge. The cartouche has been printed with a lovely tortoiseshell pattern.

Condition: Excellent impression and color; very good condition. Barely visible center fold.

Dimensions: ôban (36.6 x 24.6 cm)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi
Literature: Henry Smith II: “Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”, plate 9.  See also the Brooklyn Museum collection. Signature: Hiroshige ga

SKU: HIR561