Explore works by one of the great masters of the Japanese landscape print, Utagawa Hiroshige.
A daimyō procession begins to cross the Ōi River. During the Edo period the government restricted the number of permanent bridges over major rivers, as a means of preventing easy access to Edo by enemy forces. Local porters – the figures in loincloths here – could be hired to carry people and luggage through the water. This print has a pronounced bird’s eye view, reminiscent of the printed travel guidebooks to which Hiroshige looked for inspiration.
Pollard, Clare, Mitsuko Ito, Landscape, Cityscape: Hiroshige Woodblock Prints in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2014), no.6, p.48, illus. p.49
daimyō
‘Feudal’ lord
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