Page 295 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

152 The view here is from, not of, Fuka- The fabric with large patterns in
Ando Hiroshige (1797 -1858) gawa Susaki, which was southeast of brown and indigo was designed for
Fukagawa Susafci and Jümantsubo, from the Kiba lumberyards. To the north- summer or the bath. Primary atten-
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo east lay the Jûmantsubo, a large tract tion, however, is focused on the fabrics
of land reclaimed from the marshes in the center, where every other strip
1857 in 1723 -1726 and named after its is an exquisitely shaded alternation
Color woodblock print
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3
34 x 22.5 (i3 /sx8 /8 ) approximate area of 100,000 tsubo of blue and white. This fabric was to
be made into tenugui, cotton strips that
Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection (about eighty acres). At the time of
this print it was occupied in part by were used as towels and headbands
one of the suburban daimyo estates and that became a common gift and
• This dramatic design has consis- souvenir item in the Edo period. Great
tently been one of the most favored that were common in this area. care went into the custom design of
of the entire series, often ranked with The eagle may represent the deity
294 tenugui. Those in the foreground bear
the rain at Ôhashi (cat. 149). Its par- worshipped at the Washi Daimyójin
ticular appeal lies in the distinction Shrine, site of the popular Torinomachi the fish mark of the publisher of the
prints, Uoei (see cat. 154), here cleverly
between the powerful embracing form Festival. This connection, whether written so that it resembles the hira-
of the foreground eagle, as it prepares intended by Hiroshige or not, is cer-
to dive for prey, and the desolate tainly plausible: the festival occurred gana, pronounced ue and hence an the
abbreviation of Uoei. The strips in
waste of the wintry marshes below, in the winter and was linked with background bear the lozenge-shaped
extending into the distance to the prayers for a prosperous new year, monogram of Hiroshige himself. It is
familiar snow-capped form of Mount a theme that relates to Fukagawa
Tsukuba. The back of the eagle is Susaki as well. Washi Daimyójin, the characteristic of the artist's taste and
humility that he has placed himself
printed in glinting mica, and the three eagle god, was also associated with behind his publisher — and that his
visible claws are coated in a shiny the Bodhisattva Myôken, deification of personal mark appears only this once
gloss (nikaiuaztiri), enhancing the the Big Dipper, which is perhaps sug- in the entire series. It is somewhat
contrast with the white background. gested in this northward view. HDS ironic that the color here is not the
As in other views without figures, the
traditional indigo of the dyer but the
human presence is still felt — in the imported Prussian blue of the printer.
roofs at the left, in the poles of the 153
lumberyards beyond, and above all in Ando Hiroshige (1797 -1858) Carrying through the theme of dyeing,
the lone wooden bucket floating at Dyers' Quarter, Kanda, from the actual texture of cloth is conveyed
the edge of the bay, surrounded by the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by the careful fabric printing of the
small water birds on which the eagle white ground on each of the mono-
1857
seems to have its eye. grammed strips. As a finishing touch,
Color woodblock print
the title cartouche is finished in an
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Fukagawa Susaki was a well-known 34 x 22.5 (i3 /s x 8 /s) imitation of tie-dyed fabric. HDS
spit of land along Edo Bay that had Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection
the popular Benten shrine at the tip
and offered excellent shellfish gather- • Stirred by the autumn wind, long
ing at low tide in the spring. Hiro- strips of freshly dyed cotton fabric
shige's first view of Fukagawa Susaki hang from drying platforms erected
appeared in the Tôto meisho (Famous high above dyers' shops in the Kanda
Places of Edo) series of 1831, showing district. Hiroshige's vantage point can
the shrine in snow, looking east to the be gauged quite precisely by observ-
first sun rising on New Year's Day — ing the relative position between the
a sight for which the place was noted. tall castle tower and Mount Fuji in the
distance.This is, appropriately enough,
the Fuji-View Tower (Fujimi no Yagura)
of Edo Castle.