Utagawa Hiroshige
Chikugo Province, Currents around the Weir1855, 9th month

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Japanese woodblock print, vertical landscape with a wide cobalt-blue river cutting diagonally across the composition, stone weirs, teal mountains, and coral sky; Japanese text cartouches at upper right and left

Artist or Maker: Utagawa Hiroshige
Japan, Edo, 1797-1858
Title: Chikugo Province, Currents around the Weir
Date Made: 1855, 9th month
Period: Edo period (1603-1868)
Medium: Color woodblock print
Dimensions: Image: 13 9/16 × 9 1/16 in. (34.45 × 23.02 cm) Sheet: 14 5/8 × 9 11/16 in. (37.15 × 24.61 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Arthur and Fran Sherwood
Accession Number: M.2007.152.29
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: Utagawa Hiroshige designed many series of landscape prints. This view of the Chikugo River belongs to his popular Rokujūyoshū meisho zue (Famous Places of the Sixty-odd Provinces), which he designed from 1853 to 1856. The series consists of sixty-nine prints presenting well-known locales or places of particular interest from each of the sixty-eight provinces and the city of Edo. The vertical orientation was unusual for the time. The Chikugo is the largest river of Kyūshū, the southernmost of Japan’s five main islands. It separated Chikugo Province (today southwestern Fukuoka Prefecture) from the province of Chikuzen. The village of Haki is seen on the far bank. Running down the center of the river is a fishing weir, a man-made structure placed in the water to direct the flow of fish, thereby trapping them in a small area where they are gathered by fishermen. Here, the weir captures sweetfish (ayu), which were a summertime specialty of the region.

Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, travel became an increasingly popular recreation. Like so many other Japanese, it is said that Hiroshige journeyed on the Tōkaidō road between Edo and Kyoto and visited popular scenic sites along the Sumida River and elsewhere. On his travels, he sketched the towns, landscapes, and scenery that he encountered, drawings that he used later in designing prints. He also based some of his designs, including many of the prints from the Rokujūyoshū meisho zue series, on existing prints and printed books, in particular travel guides (meisho zue) of the time. The view captured here is based on an illustration from the early nineteenth-century book Sansui kikan (Exceptional Landscapes) by artist Fuchigami Kyokkō (1753−1816).

2024

Utagawa Hiroshige
Chikugo Province, Currents around the Weir1855, 9th month

On view:

Geffen Galleries, floor 1

Artist or Maker: Utagawa Hiroshige
Japan, Edo, 1797-1858
Title: Chikugo Province, Currents around the Weir
Date Made: 1855, 9th month
Period: Edo period (1603-1868)
Medium: Color woodblock print
Dimensions: Image: 13 9/16 × 9 1/16 in. (34.45 × 23.02 cm) Sheet: 14 5/8 × 9 11/16 in. (37.15 × 24.61 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Arthur and Fran Sherwood
Accession Number: M.2007.152.29
Classification: Prints
Collecting Area: Japanese Art
Curatorial Notes: Utagawa Hiroshige designed many series of landscape prints. This view of the Chikugo River belongs to his popular Rokujūyoshū meisho zue (Famous Places of the Sixty-odd Provinces), which he designed from 1853 to 1856. The series consists of sixty-nine prints presenting well-known locales or places of particular interest from each of the sixty-eight provinces and the city of Edo. The vertical orientation was unusual for the time. The Chikugo is the largest river of Kyūshū, the southernmost of Japan’s five main islands. It separated Chikugo Province (today southwestern Fukuoka Prefecture) from the province of Chikuzen. The village of Haki is seen on the far bank. Running down the center of the river is a fishing weir, a man-made structure placed in the water to direct the flow of fish, thereby trapping them in a small area where they are gathered by fishermen. Here, the weir captures sweetfish (ayu), which were a summertime specialty of the region.

Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, travel became an increasingly popular recreation. Like so many other Japanese, it is said that Hiroshige journeyed on the Tōkaidō road between Edo and Kyoto and visited popular scenic sites along the Sumida River and elsewhere. On his travels, he sketched the towns, landscapes, and scenery that he encountered, drawings that he used later in designing prints. He also based some of his designs, including many of the prints from the Rokujūyoshū meisho zue series, on existing prints and printed books, in particular travel guides (meisho zue) of the time. The view captured here is based on an illustration from the early nineteenth-century book Sansui kikan (Exceptional Landscapes) by artist Fuchigami Kyokkō (1753−1816).

2024