The Pine of Success and Onmayagashi, Asakusa River (Asakusagawa shubi no matsu Oumayagashi), from the series One Hundred Views of Edo (Meisho Edo Hyakkei)

Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797-1858)

1856

Medium
Color woodblock print; ōban
Classification
Print
Dimensions
35.3 × 24.3 cm (13 7/8 × 9 9/16 in.)
Culture
Japan
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
Credit line
Clarence Buckingham Collection
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

This print depicts a scene on the Sumida River, also known as the Asakusa River. The sun has set and the stars are already appearing in the clear sky of early evening. To the left is the famous Pine of Success, a tree that symbolized visitors’ desires to get their money’s worth in the nearby pleasure quarters of the Yoshiwara. In the lower left corner of the image, a roofed boat sits with its green blinds lowered, the figure of a woman silhouetted behind them. She must not be alone: two pairs of clogs are just visible in the prow.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0