Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
Marunouchi Naka-dori, the tree-lined avenue running through Tokyo's premier business district between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace moat, is captured in this fifth entry of what appears to be a numbered series. The street's character combines Western-style commercial architecture, planted street trees, and the steady movement of pedestrians and vehicles that define a modern central business district. Suwa renders this urban corridor with attention to the way buildings frame the sky into a narrow band above the street, creating a canyon effect that concentrates visual energy along the avenue's perspective lines. The Marunouchi district's planned grid and uniform building heights give the composition an architectural regularity unusual in Tokyo's generally organic urban fabric.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
#5 Marunouchi Naka-dori was created by Kanenori Suwa (諏訪兼紀).
#5 Marunouchi Naka-dori depicts urban scenes, architecture, and trees.
