大川岸一之橋遠景

About this print

The moon peeks out between the clouds, lighting the river white. On the bank, a rickshaw carrying a passenger and a man running with a lantern are drawn as black silhouettes. On the far bank, the lights of houses glow faintly. The artist is Kobayashi Kiyochika, who went on drawing Tokyo throughout the Meiji era.

Okawa was the name used in the Edo period for the Sumida River downstream from around Azuma Bridge. Ichino Bridge (Ichinohashi, "First Bridge") spans the Tatekawa, a canal linking the Sumida and Naka rivers, and got its name because it was the first bridge counting from the canal's mouth. From 1876 (Meiji 9), Kiyochika published woodblock prints of Tokyo scenes that made inventive use of light and shadow. These are called kosenga ("light-ray pictures"). It is not clear when the album containing this picture, Kiyochika Gajo (Kiyochika Picture Album), was drawn, but the Yokohama Museum of Art owns a multicolored woodblock print with the same title (1880, Meiji 13).

Ichino Bridge still connects Ryogoku 2-chome and Chitose 1-chome in Sumida Ward.

Glossary