_sen Edo Meisho: Ryogoku Bridge, Evening Fireworks

Description

Ando Hiroshige
Japan, 1797–1858
Gyôsho Tôkaidô Series: Okazaki, Yahagi Bridge over
the Toyokawa River
Edo period (1615–1868)
circa 1841–42
Color woodblock print
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1948/1.132
Ando Hiroshige III
Japan, 1843–94
Famous Places of Edo: Ryogoku Bridge, Evening Fireworks
Edo period (1615–1868)
circa 1865–75
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1948/1.143
Whistler’s views of Battersea Bridge, which he depicted in paintings and prints in the 1870s, are in some ways an homage to Japanese prints. Not only does he take a venerable bridge as his subject in lithographs such as The Tall Bridge and The Broad Bridge and the etching Old Battersea Bridge (on the walls adjacent to this case), it is evident that he was experimenting with Japanese visual conventions in his portrayals. The compositional similarities to Japanese prints include the low vantage point; the structure of the bridges themselves, with their gently arcing profiles, wooden piers, and pedestrian railings; the presence of sailboats under the spans; and the low open boats in the foreground. Whistler’s works, however, are never merely imitative of Japanese prints—instead the visual strategies found in them are employed in the service of his distinctive aesthetic approach to subject and medium.
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In mid-July, fireworks, music, and boats lit by lanterns celebrate the kawa-biraki (opening of the river) ceremony in Edo (present-day Tokyo). Hiroshige interprets the scene with bold, silhouetted forms. A great rocket bursts in the sky in a shower of falling stars as crowds on the bridge and in boats watch.