home

etchings

prints

maps

botanicals

e-mail

Utagawa Hiroshige 1797-1858 published by Uoya Eikichi from the series "One Hundred Famous Views in Edo" Fireworks over Ryogoku Bridge Japanese color wood block print on rice paper, with mica and wood grain Image size: 14 by 9 1/2 inches  Sold

Honjo Fukagawa was a district on the eastern bank of the Sumida River where, from 1701, some fifteen large timber merchants were assigned a site by the government. At the time this area was only partly cultivated or built up, but rapid supply routes were guaranteed by the Eitai Bridge, constructed over the Sumida in 1698, and by the countless urban waterways. After the major expansion of the Edo in the seventeenth century, with the establishment there of the government there in 1603 and the first great fire of 1657, wood remained one of the major commodities in the city. Edo was constantly plagued by fires, hich often destroyed whole neighborhoods. The umbrella in the foreground bears the character "Uo", no doubt an allusion to the publisher of the series, Uoya Eikichi