Sumidagawa

Dated 1933, Sumidagawa depicts Tokyo's most famous river, the Sumida, which has been a defining feature of the capital's geography and culture since the city was known as Edo. The river divides the eastern shitamachi districts from the western yamanote hills and has served as a transportation corridor, recreational space, and artistic subject for centuries. Fujimori's 1933 rendering captures the Sumida during a decade when the river's banks were being modernized with concrete embankments and new bridges to replace structures destroyed in the 1923 earthquake. The woodblock medium connects Fujimori's view to the long tradition of Sumida River prints by Hiroshige, Hokusai, and countless other artists, while his contemporary perspective documents the river in its modern, reconstructed state.