Page 320 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

173 174
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
Nihonbashi in Edo, from Thirty-six Gotenyama at Shinagawa on the Tôkaidô,
Views of Mount Fuji from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
c. 1830-1832 c. 1830-1832
Color woodblock print Color woodblock print
Approx. 26 x 38 (ioV4 x 15) Approx. 26 x 38 (ioV4 x 15)
Tokyo National Museum Tokyo National Museum

• The composition of this print by • The theme of people picnicking
Hokusai bears a striking resemblance under cherry blossoms is almost a
to Hanegawa Tôei's Korean Mission cliché, but Japanese artists managed
(cat. 155): both organize the linear to bring astonishing variety to this 319
recession along two lines of converg- hackneyed subject over the ages.
ing buildings while cutting Mount Fuji Gotenyama, located in Shinagawa —
loose from the perspectival scheme. the first Tôkaidô stop to the southwest
The similarity is not accidental. It of Edo — was famous as a site for
shows the circulation and modifica- cherry-viewing parties, and teahouses
tion of compositions within the realm catered to this clientele. The trip was
of ukiyoe; anything was fair game just far enough from the city proper
for an artist as long as an individual to give the feel of an adventure in the
spin was put on the rendition. Indeed country. Because it was thought that
there are very similar views of the Ôta Dôkan, the fifteenth-century
Nihonbashi bridge (from a slightly founder of Edo, built his castle there
different angle) and its neighboring (Gotenyama means "palace moun-
rows of fireproof warehouses, plus tain"), the site also satisfied the need
the shogun's castle in the Chiyoda for a famous place to have a recount-
district and Mount Fuji. In addition to able history.
the ubiquitous Fuji — the ostensible Hokusai emphasized the rolling
"subject" of the series — Hokusai appearance of the area, playing off
placed the keep and an outer turret of
the castle outside the perspectival the rounded forms of the hills against
the sudden drop to the rooftops at
scheme but almost at center, thus lower left and against the absolutely
affirming the Tokugawa as above, but flat area in the middle distance. Enor-
central to, the social vision of the mously outsized cherry trees domi-
city. Below, boats laden with goods nate the composition (and dwarf the
from the provinces tie up at the land- hillocks); Fuji is visible in the middle
ings, while at the very bottom of the
composition throngs of tradespeople of the picture, bisected almost per-
jostle each other as they cross fectly by the horizon. The mountain is
wearing its springtime coat of snow.
the bridge, marked by its distinctive
metal-capped railing finials (giboshi). The artist emphasized the intoxicat-
ing quality of the
cherry blossoms by
A second bridge, Ikkokubashi, is seen having many of the people in the
in the distance. Hokusai presented
the vision of an orderly city, and by composition appear drunk, exhausted,
or, in the
children on
case of the
extension, an orderly society. MT
their parents' backs, asleep. The lively
poses of the figures recall the manga
studies of Hokusai's sketchbooks;
possibly they were observed from
life. MT