$1,000–$8,000. Common prints: $1,000–$2,500. Key value factors: As a pioneer of sosaku-hanga and influential art critic, Hakutei's prints carry historical significance. Early self-carved prints are most valued.
This woodblock print shows the Nihon-bashi Bridge, the stone-arched span that served as the symbolic center of Tokyo and the point from which all distances in Japan were historically measured. By the time Hakutei depicted it, the original wooden bridge had been replaced by a Western-style stone structure in 1911, and the surrounding area was Tokyo's busiest commercial district. The print captures the bridge as both an engineering object and a cultural landmark, its solid form anchoring the composition while the activity of the surrounding streets provides context. Hakutei's treatment of this subject invites comparison with the countless ukiyo-e depictions of the same bridge by artists from Hiroshige to Kuniyoshi, but his modern perspective and self-printed technique set the image firmly in the twentieth century.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Nihon-bashi Bridge was created by Ishii Hakutei (石井柏亭).
Nihon-bashi Bridge depicts landscapes and bridges.
