Title : Viewing Sunset over the Ryögokubashi from the Ommaya Embankment

Artist : Katsushika Hokusai

Date : c. 1830 - 1834

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : The Ommaya Embankment was a landing for a ferry crossing between the Ryögoku and Ökawa bridges, which spanned the Sumida River in Edo. In this print, the long arc of the Ryögoku Bridge is seen from a point near the Ommaya embarkation point. In Hokusai’s time, the Ryögoku Bridge and its vicinity served as a gathering place where, for example, people would crowd to view fireworks during the summer festival. This custom still continues today. In the Edo period, a network of large rivers, such as the Sumida and many subsidiary rivers as well as canals, provided convenient public transportation. For a minimum fee, passengers rode a ferry to a landing nearest to their destination. Ferries carried all sorts of people, who arrived from all directions. On this ferry some passengers chat, while another sits in deep contemplation, and one man leans on the gunwale to wash his towel. A woman in another boat also washes her towel. Most of the people are indifferent to the beauty of Mount Fuji, seen dark blue against the red sunset sky. Hokusai, well known for his masterful treatment of water and waves, skillfully expresses the rolling current of the river, which makes the ferry pitch. Hokusai’s ingenious design ability is observed in the bird-catcher’s long, birdlime-coated pole. This pole, rising high against the empty sky, enlivens a horizontal composition that would have been a bit dull without it. The key-block was printed in blue. (The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, HOKUSAI AND HIROSHIGE – Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998 Page 76. Cat. 27)

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