Sumidagawa no yuki|Sumida River in the Snow, from the series "Famous Places in Edo in the Four Seasons"

Utagawa Hiroshige

1834 · Woodblock print (tanzaku size); ink and color on paper · Asian Art

A boatman wearing a straw hat and raincoat poles a raft along the Sumida River, which flows through the downtown area of the capital city, Edo. Snow falls all over the surface of the print, effectively sealing off the world in the picture. The dreamlike impression also extends to the indefinite border between the river and sky. The classical waka poem at the upper left can be translated as follows: Snow falls over the surface of the Sumida River, and Unmelted masses might be capital birds. "Capital birds" refers to an episode from the tenth-century literary classic the Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari), in which travelers from the ancient capital, Kyoto, see a type of gull along the Sumida River that reminds them of their home far away.

Artist

Utagawa Hiroshige

Date

1834

Medium

Woodblock print (tanzaku size); ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936