$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 depicts Yanagibashi, the Willow Bridge district along the Sumida River in Tokyo, treated here as a standalone subject rather than as part of the Twelve Views of Tokyo series. The district's atmosphere of riverside leisure and refined entertainment had been a favorite subject for artists since the Edo period, and Hakutei's modern rendering places him in a long lineage while asserting the sosaku-hanga difference. The willow trees that gave the area its name offered Hakutei organic, flowing forms to contrast with the rigid geometry of the bridge and surrounding buildings. The print captures a neighborhood in transition, where the old pleasure-quarter culture of teahouses and geisha was gradually yielding to the commercial pressures of modern Tokyo.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Yanagibashi was created by Ishii Hakutei (石井柏亭).
Yanagibashi depicts urban scenes, rivers & lakes, and bridges.
