painting;
hanging scroll
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.403
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. View of Sumida River: Azuma Bridge in foreground with large emblematic sail; Mt Tsukuba on distant horizon; in between fishermen, pleasure-boats and ferry close to shallows off Imado, and on far bank top of stone gateway to Mimeguri Shrine, and Shirahige Shrine and Chomyo Temple surrounded by trees beyond. With poem. Ink and slight colour on silk. Signed, sealed and inscribed.
- Production date
- 1804-1830
- Dimensions
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Height: 82.60 centimetres
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Width: 28.90 centimetres
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
Eishi's landscapes of Edo centre on the Sumida River, the main artery of the city, and are generally made up of impressionistic collages of vignettes of famous places looming out of Kano-style ink-wash mists. Most impressive is a pair of six-fold screens, dated 1826, in the Azabu Museum of Arts and Crafts (Sendai 1988, no. 55) which show a vast panorama along the Sumida all the way from Shinagawa to Asakusa.
The view of the present painting is looking north-east along the upper reaches of the Sumida, from Okawa (Azuma) Bridge in the foreground (with a large emblematic sail) to Mt Tsukuba on the distant horizon. In between are fishermen, pleasure-boats and a ferry close to the shallows off Imado, and on the far bank the top of the stone gateway to Mimeguri Shrine, just visible above the embankment, and Shirahige Shrine and Chomyo Temple surrounded by trees beyond. The 'kyoka' poem above, which contains word-play on the name Mt Tsukuba and the expression 'me ni tsuku' (to catch the eye), may be translated:
Sumida River -
What catches the eye
Is the mist
Rising from Mt Tsukuba
At dawn.
In the painting a v-shaped formation of geese is leaving Mt Tsukuba.
Simple works such as these could be quickly executed in response to the huge demand which must have been directed at Eishi and Nampo in their later years (Nampo used the name Shokusanjin after 1801). Under such circumstances, however, the level of inspiration of both paintings and poems was bound to suffer.
Literature:
Brandt, Klaus J. 'Hosoda Eishi 1756-1829'. Stuttgart, K. J. Brandt, 1977, painting no. 516.
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, BW no. 21.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.403
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1422 (Japanese Painting Number)
