Tokyo Metro Library
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- metro
Description
The Tokyo Metropolitan Library, a civic institution dedicated to public access to books and information, becomes a woodblock print subject in Suwa's ongoing documentation of Tokyo's built environment. Libraries occupy a specific place in the urban landscape as quiet, inward-focused buildings that contrast with the commercial energy of their surroundings. Suwa renders the library's architecture with the observational precision he brings to all his urban subjects, capturing the building's facade, its relationship to the street, and the way it sits within its neighborhood context. The choice of a library as subject continues Suwa's democratic approach to Tokyo, where a reading room is as worthy of artistic attention as a famous shrine or scenic overlook.
More Prints by Kanenori Suwa
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tokyo Metro Library was created by Kanenori Suwa (諏訪兼紀).
Tokyo Metro Library depicts urban scenes and architecture, set at Tokyo.