Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)
Kyoto: The Great Bridge at Sanjō (Kyō, Sanjō Ōhashi: 京三条大橋) from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi: 東海道五十三次之内)
ca 1838
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga (香蝶楼国貞画)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Diet Library
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
Honolulu Museum of Art
Ritsumeikan University - dated to 1836
Fujisawa Museum of Art
Spencer Museum of Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Art
Mead Art Museum
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr
The Sanjo Ohashi Bridge in Kyoto
Victoria and Albert Museum
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Sanjō Bridge spans the Kamo River. The quality of the bridge can be judged by the use of bronze finials.
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This is number 55 in the series and unlike other prints it does not include the term 'view of'.
The Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna notes: "Here is one of the end or starting points of Tōkaidō: the imperial capital Kyoto 京都. The picture of Kyoto in the background was conceived by Kunisada himself, but shows the usual scene of the last picture of Tōkaidō series: the hustle and bustle on the big Sanjō bridge (Sanjō ōhashi 三条 大橋) in Kyoto and the view of a part of the city behind it. In the foreground an oharame. This is the name given to women from the village of Ohara (near Kyoto) who collected brushwood for sale in the city market. She has her kimono tied up at the front and carries a bundle of twigs on her head, in which there is a branch with plum blossoms (ume). Behind her is a black ox loaded with brushwood."
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Gian Carlo Calza in his description in Hiroshige: The Master of Nature of the original Hiroshige print re-imagined in this scene said: "Travellers enter the imperial capital, Miyako (Kyoto), by way of Sanjō bridge. In the background, Hiroshige placed the Higashiyama hill, with its buildings and temples immersed in green, and behind it, Mount Hiei."
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Higashiyama is about 1,312' high, while Mt. Hiei comes in at about 2,782'.
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In Tokaido Landscapes: The Path from Hiroshige to Contemporary Artists, 2011, #35, p. 47, speaking of the original Hiroshige print it says in a text by Sasaki Moritoshi: "With deep emotion at the completion of the Hōeidō series, Hiroshige drew a panorama of the Sanjō Ōhashi bridge in the capital ("Keishi") and the Higashiyama district in the background. He chose this bridge perhaps so the start and end points of the Tōkaidō would both be bridge scenes, giving the series a sense of unity. On the bridge, one's eye is drawn to a person who has packed tea ceremony utensils in straw and carries them on his back. In the bosom of the mountain are the temple building of Kiyomizu-dera, and below it to the right is the five-story pagoda at Hōkanji (the Yasaka pagoda). The presence of these famous temples undoubtedly intensified the longing for Kyoto in Hiroshige's viewers in Edo."
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)
beautiful woman picture (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)