川口鉄橋

About this print

This woodblock print shows a railway bridge over the Arakawa River, which flows between Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo. It is by Inoue Tankei, a pupil of Kobayashi Kiyochika, and is said to be from Tokyo Meisho (Famous Places of Tokyo), published by Fukuda Kumajiro in 1887 (Meiji 20). Tankei was the name Inoue Yasuji used from around 1884. He carried on his teacher's kosenga ("light-ray picture") style in scenes of Meiji Tokyo, and died in 1889 at the age of 26.

The Nippon Railway, running north from Ueno, opened between Ueno and Kumagaya in 1883. At that time a temporary wooden bridge crossed the Arakawa at Kawaguchi, and an iron truss bridge came into use only in 1885. This iron bridge, linking Akabane and Kawaguchi, took 21 months to build.

The bridge was later replaced, once from the end of the Taisho era into the early Showa era and again between 1965 and 1974. Today the Keihin-Tohoku Line, the Utsunomiya and Takasaki Lines, freight lines and others cross the Arakawa on three bridges side by side.

Glossary