Title : The Cloud-Hanging Bridge at Mount Gyödö, Ashikaga

Artist : Katsushika Hokusai

Date : c. 1833 - 1834

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : Mount Gyödö, a mountain often climbed by mountaineering ascetics, is located north of Ashikaga in Shimotsuke Province (near the present-day city of Ashikaga in Tochigi prefecture). In this print, Hokusai presents a fantastic view of an imaginary wooden bridge. The ascetics' training halls, built on a high rock formation, are connected to a small shrine perched on an isolated crag near a bridge crossing over the gorge, which is enveloped in thick clouds. The surrealistic scene seems to justify the name Cloud-hanging Bridge. Searching for beautiful, unusual, and fantastic bridges, Hokusai likely studied old records and descriptions, from which, aided by his imagination, he recreated the Cloud-hanging Bridge. (The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, “Hokusai and Hiroshige”, 1998) (from Hokusai His Students exhibition 1/30/2007-)

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