Eitai Bridge

Eitai-bashi spans the Sumida River near its mouth in eastern Tokyo, a much-rebuilt crossing that historically connected Nihonbashi to Fukagawa and was reconstructed in steel after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Fujimori's print treats the bridge as a geometric structure within the cityscape rather than a romantic emblem—the steel truss form, with its repeating diagonals and verticals, suits the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) preference for clear linear carving and flat color planes. The composition likely views the bridge from one bank or from the river itself, with the Sumida rendered through [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations and the architecture in firm blocks of color. The Sumida and its bridges had been a subject for [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) printmakers since Hiroshige's Hundred Famous Views of Edo, but a sosaku-hanga handling reframes the same geography through the modernist concerns of the 1920s and 1930s, when the city's reconstructed infrastructure became a recurring subject. The print belongs alongside Tsukishima as part of Fujimori's documentation of working waterfront Tokyo.