Asakusa rokku (Sixth District of Asakusa) / Shin Tokyo hyakkei (One Hundred New Views of Tokyo, No. 67)

The Sixth District of Asakusa (Rokku) was the concentrated entertainment quarter of the Asakusa neighborhood — a dense corridor of movie theaters, variety halls, and outdoor amusements that drew enormous crowds throughout the Taisho era. As the sixty-seventh print in the Shin Tokyo Hyakkei series, this sheet places Suwa's documentary eye on one of the city's most visually active street environments. The [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) method — artist as designer, carver, and printer — suited such a subject: irregular lighting from marquee lanterns and electric signs, overlapping architectural planes, and pedestrian crowds all offered opportunities for expressive carving and selective color application through graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) passages. Suwa's hand-printed impressions carry the tactile variation of [baren](/glossary/baren) pressure across the [washi](/glossary/washi) surface, distinguishing each sheet from commercial publisher output. The Rokku subject situates this print within a broader Taisho fascination with mass entertainment and the transformation of traditional Edo-period Asakusa into a site of modern urban spectacle.