Clear Skies after Snow--Ryogoku in Moonlight

Catalog note / 解説

This <i>uchiwa-e</i> (rigid fan print) design by Hiroshige is remarkable for its pervasive and almost palpable sense of stillness, and for its more than usually close-up rendering of its female subject. The moonlit scene shows a woman on the west side of the Sumida river just downstream from the Ryogoku Bridge in the Northern Nihonbashi district. Quiet in this winter view, the Ryogoku Bridge was built shortly after the Meireki fire of 1657 to facilitate the development of the area to the east of the Sumida river. The willow tree in the foreground marks the location as the northern end of the Motoyanagi Bridge. The bridge behind the woman across the river to the right spans the entrance to t…