Utagawa Hiroshige I
1853 (Kaei 6)
Donated by Tanba Tsuneo
Published between 1852 and 1856, Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces (a total of 70 landscape prints) is a series of ukiyo-e prints by Hiroshige created during his later years.
This piece depicts a bird’s-eye view of the mouth of the Mogami River, with Mount Gassan in the distance. Although drawn from imagination based on a source book rather than from real life, it paints a vivid picture of a time when boats were the primary mode of transport. Compositionally, the landscape displays a real depth: the river snakes dramatically, and the larger boats in the foreground also create the illusion of depth.