Monkey bridge

Monkey bridge, dated around 1830-44 and now in the Art Institute of Chicago, is an oban-format harimaze print showing the celebrated Saruhashi or Monkey Bridge in Kai Province (modern Yamanashi Prefecture). The Saruhashi was one of the three most famous bridges in Edo-period Japan, suspended without supporting pillars over a deep gorge, and its dramatic engineering made it a recurring subject for landscape designers. Taito II's treatment focuses on the steep ravine and the slender span of the bridge, with travelers crossing as small figures dwarfed by the cliffs. The harimaze format allowed the print to circulate as part of a multi-scene sheet, and Cleveland Museum of Art holds a separately catalogued color woodblock print of the same site by Taito II, indicating that he returned to the Saruhashi subject more than once during the 1830s. The composition shows the Hokusai-school interest in dramatic geography, comparable to Hokusai's own treatment of the bridge in earlier compositions.