大川富士見渡

About this print

This picture shows the Fujimi Ferry that once crossed the Sumida River. Okawa, in the title, is what the people of Edo called the lower Sumida. It is one leaf of Kiyochika Gajo (Kiyochika Picture Album), whose date the source gives only as "18--." Kobayashi Kiyochika made a woodblock print with the same title in 1880 (Meiji 13), in his kosenga ("light-ray picture") style, but the source does not tell us whether this leaf is that print or a painting done by hand with a brush.

In the Edo period there were few bridges over the Sumida, and many ferries crossed between the banks. The Fujimi Ferry ran near where Kuramae Bridge stands today and took its name from its fine view of Mount Fuji. Because the shogunate's rice storehouses were nearby, it was also called the Okura Ferry.

Where the ferry had crossed, Kuramae Bridge was built in 1927 as part of the rebuilding after the Great Kanto Earthquake. It is painted yellow, suggesting rice husks, and is a Tokyo Metropolitan Selected Historic Building.

Glossary