Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)
Fukui Bridge in Echizen Province
Echizen Fukui no hashi
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830
What it is
A long bridge at Fukui in Echizen carries a busy crowd of people and horses over the river.
Why it matters
Hokusai draws the bridge from the side, a single long line crowded with life.
What to notice
The bridge runs flat across the sheet, and the crowd moves along it in a steady line.
A bridge is a street that happens to be over water.
The record
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849)
- Series
- Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)
- Date
- c. 1830
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art · JP2952
Impression note. A horizontal ōban, about 26 by 38 cm on the Met record. The bridges are drawn in fine, exact lines against broad fields of colour, and a clean impression keeps every plank and rail distinct. This is the largest clean open impression of the design the Met holds. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)Ancient View of Yatsuhashi in Mikawa ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1834
Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)Kintai Bridge in Suō ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · 1827–30
Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)Old View of the Boat-bridge at Sano in Kōzuke ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830
Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyō kiran)Tenman Bridge in Settsu ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830 (date of the series; the Met record gives only the artist’s dates)The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.