Nihon Bridge at Edo (Nihonbashi)

Katsushika Hokusai
Japan
1760 – 1849

Nihon Bridge at Edo (Nihonbashi)
from the series Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)
1830-34
woodblock print, ink and colour on paper
Place made
Edo (Tokyo)
Medium
woodblock print, ink and colour on paper
Dimensions
24.8 x 36.6 cm (sight)
Credit line
Gift of Edward Newman 2004
Accession number
20044G11
Signature and date
Signed, printed in block, u.r., ink "zen hokusai litsu". Not dated.
Provenance
Created by Katsushika Hokusai, Edo, 1830-34; Edward Newman collection; gifted to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2004.
Media category
Print
Collection area
Asian art - Japan

  • Views of the central district of old Edo such as this are frequently characterised by three motifs: the arc of Nihonbashi (literally, ‘Bridge of Japan’), the tiered roofs of Edo Castle and the distant Mount Fuji. In addition to being the first stage of the Tōkaidō, Nihonbashi’s distinctive form and prominent location earned it the importance of a symbol of the capital city.

    During the Edo period, European artistic conventions such as one-point perspective were part of a diversity of foreign commodities and ideas adopted by artists. Hokusai’s radical cropping of the foreground bridge has the effect of thrusting the viewer directly into the bustling crowds of townsmen and was one the many ingenious compositional tools used by him that inspired European artists in the mid-late nineteenth century. 

    Russell Kelty, Curator of Asian Art

  • Samurai

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 25 July 2020 – 28 March 2021