Utagawa Hiroshige "Eitaibashi Fukagawa Shinchi" woodcut, Japan, circa 1830-1840

Utagawa Hiroshige "Eitaibashi Fukagawa Shinchi" woodblock print, Japan, circa 1830–1840.

Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige, depicting "Eitaibashi Fukagawa Shinchi" from the series Tōto Meisho („Famous Places in the Eastern Capital”). The composition shows the Eitai bridge over the arms of Edo bay, with commercial traffic and vessels moored near the Fukagawa district, one of the important port areas of late Edo (present-day Tokyo).

From a historical and stylistic point of view, the work belongs to Hiroshige's early mature production, probably made between the end of the 1830s and the beginning of the 1840s, a period associated with the Tenpo era. The compositional characteristics - the broad diagonal of the bridge, the emphasis on everyday urban activity and the use of wide expanses of water - are typical of the visual language Hiroshige developed before the celebrated "Tokaido" and "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" series. The polychrome printing (nishiki-e) uses contrasts between vegetal blue tones and the red of the bridge, creating a deep perspective and an atmosphere of animated harbour life.

State of preservation:

The work is mounted on a secondary support of machine-made paper. Pronounced general browning is visible (oxidation and acidification of the support), together with torn edges and losses of material along the margins, slight deformation and cockling of the paper, general wear and characteristic staining. In spite of this, the impression remains legible, with a good decorative presence and the visual authenticity particular to period Japanese woodblock prints.

Dimensions: 21 × 34.3 cm

The impression can be linked iconographically with the work held in the collection of British Museum (inv. 1954,1009,0.4), entitled „Eitaibashi Fukagawa Shinchi”.