Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) | Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo (Edo Nihonbashi) | Edo period, 19th century

Merchant storehouses flank the embankment along the Nihonbashi River. The Nihonbashi Bridge teems with pedestrians, fishmongers, vendors and porters carrying their various wares and produce. Hokusai radically crops the foreground, showing only the upper portion of the figures on the bridge – a bold compositional device that intensifies the sense of bustling movement and thrusts the viewer directly into the crowds. In the waters below, boatmen prepare to unload their cargo along the bank. Beyond, Edo Castle and the snow-capped cone of Mount Fuji emerge from forest and hills in the distance.

Views of the central district of old Edo are frequently characterised by three motifs: the arc of Nihonbashi [lit. The Bridge of Japan] – together with the tiered roofs of Edo Castle and the distant silhouette of Mount Fuji. As the starting point of the Tokaido highway connecting Edo and Kyoto, Nihonbashi was considered an important symbol of the capital.

A similar impression of the same print is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), object number JP1295, go to:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/55237