Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1868) | Seido and Kanda River from Shohei Bridge (Shoheibashi Seido Kandagawa) | Edo period, 19th century

The forty-seventh installment in the summer section of the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Hiroshige employs a number of compositional devices to create depth and dynamism to the design: the kiri, or 'cut' of the titular Shohei Bridge shown only partially with a small section of its guard rail, the steeply sloping hill to demarcate the foreground rather than perspective, and the absence of the Sacred Hall (seido) referred to in the title.

The Shohei Bridge arches over the Kanda River, connecting the produce market of Awaji-cho to the Outer Kanda area. The Sacred Hall here refers to the Yushima Sacred Hall, a Confucian temple that was re-located from its original grounds in Shinobigaoka, Ueno, to the depicted location in 1691. Hiroshige's unusual vantage point gives only a suggestion of the important bridge and the outer walls of the temple complex, focusing instead on the river bank landscape and its inhabitants. A feeling of poignancy is lent to the scene by a flock of descending geese (rakugan) that mimic the slant of the rainfall in their flight.

For a similar impression of the same print in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 21.9462, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/237081

For a further impression in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums, object number 1933.4.175, go to:

https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/208713