estate, and the red gates of the house are the first thing to catch our attention. This is considered the most detailed image of a daimyo estate in ukiyo-e art. Two further details catch the attention: the traditional and most common New Year decoration, kadomatsu, a decorated pine in front of the entrance in the foreground, and the kites fluttering in the sky. These are indisputable signs that the start of the New Year is depicted here.
Hibiya in the Soto-Sakurada District, seen from the Yamashita Quarter
Yamashitacho Hibiya Soto-Sakurada
December 1857
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Here the viewer is placed in a boat passing beneath the Eitaibashi Bridge. Eitaibashi is the largest bridge and one of the oldest across the Sumidagawa. It was constructed in 1698. The panorama from the bridge developed into one of the traditional themes of Japanese poetry in the Edo period. The bridge was frequently damaged by floods and had to be repaired at considerable expense. Finally, the government decided to give up the struggle and abandon the Eitaibashi.
Tsukudajima Island from the Eitaibashi Bridge
Eitaibashi Tsukudajima
February 1857
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
The white summit of Mount Fuji rises from a scarlet strip of dawn sky. The even line of houses belonging to common people that forms the background of the print is disrupted only by the slight curve of the bridge built across the Yagenbori canal, at the point where it joins the Sumidagawa. This bridge is known as Moto-Yanagibashi – the “True Willow Bridge”. At this early hour, boats are passing along the Sumidagawa loaded with goods for the numerous markets that open while it is still dark.
The Ekoin Monastery at Ryogoku and the Moto-Yanagibashi Bridge
Ryogoku Ekoin Motoyanagibashi
May 1857
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
In the early Edo period this spot, like the whole of the Bakurocho quarter, was the scene of lively horse-dealing. In front of the area of hostelries lay the Hatsune-no baba racetrack, the oldest in Edo. The site was directly connected with the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 that brought the Tokugawa house to power. With time, the character of the place changed. Together with Bakurocho, it became a centre for working and selling fabrics.
The Hatsune-no baba Racetrack in the Bakurocho Quarter
Bakurocho Hatsune-no baba
September 1857
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
From the second half of the seventeenth century, merchants trading in fabrics began to concentrate their businesses in this quarter. Hiroshige shows us First Street from the gate which closed off the quarter. From the moment the new capital was founded, gates like these were installed in all the quarters of Edo for crime prevention and, most importantly, fire prevention.
The Street of Fabric Shops in the Odemmacho Quarter
Odemmacho momendana
April 1858
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
A street straight as an arrow runs right to the very foot of Mount Fuji, which is depicted in the centre of the print. The mountain is separated from the cityscape by a strip of stylised clouds that Hiroshige “borrowed” from the repertoire of classical painting: Fuji seems to exist in a different world. It reigns above the urban bustle of the commercial quarter near the Nihonbashi, without coming into contact with it.
The Surugacho Quarter
Surugacho
September 1856
Colour woodblock print, 36 × 24 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
In 1636, the Sujikai-gomon gate was constructed on the road leading from the Nihonbashi bridge to Ueno, for the inspection of travellers. Next to a daimyo’s mansion is a small guardhouse, which Hiroshige depicted in the upper left-hand part of the print. Quite possibly this mansion is the destination of a procession consisting of several palanquins (kago), servants carrying luggage baskets and samurai guards. On the other side of the Kandagawa we can see the majestic buildings of the Kanda-myojin, one of the most popular Shinto holy places among those born and bred in the city.
Yatsukoji Square seen from the Sujikai Gate
Sujikai-uchi Yatsukoji
November 1857
Colour woodblock print, 34 × 23 cm
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
This print takes the viewer onto the grounds of the Kanda-myojin shrine. The shrine was one of the most ancient in Edo. It had been founded in the year 730 in the village of Shibasaki (the present-day Otemachi quarter). The shrine was held to be the dwelling-place of the spirits, who guarded the capital. Perhaps for that reason the Kanda-matsuri temple festival was the most popular holiday among the natives of the city. The print, though, depicts something different – the quiet start to a day of noise and bustle, which all days were in the Eastern Capital’s most frequently-visited holy place.
The Kanda-myojin Shrine at Daybreak
Kanda-myojin akebono-no kei
September 1857
Colour woodblock print, 34 × 23 cm
Gift of Anna Ferris, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Kiyomizudo was the most important of the temples of the Kanyeiji monastery, one of the main Buddhist centres in the Eastern Capital.
In the print Hiroshige has placed the red terrace wreathed in
