Hanga
Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki by Kawanabe Kyosai — Japanese Woodblock print

Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki

by Kawanabe Kyosai

Medium:
Woodblock print
Image courtesy of
Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Description

A fourth impression or variant of Kyosai's Rashômon Gate composition, one of several related states catalogued under the Tôkaidô meisho series umbrella. The existence of multiple impressions under slightly different series titles — here 'Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki' — reflects the fluid commercial reprinting practices of Edo-period publishers, who routinely reissued blocks under revised cartouche text or within newly assembled series. The Rashômon Gate's crumbling timbers and sinister literary associations made it a compelling subject for Kyosai, whose imagination consistently gravitated toward the uncanny and the historically charged. His training in both the Kanô school's structural draftsmanship and the Utagawa ukiyo-e lineage's compositional vocabulary gave him the tools to treat architectural ruins with both scholarly weight and visual dynamism, distinguishing his meisho treatments from more mechanical travel-series designs.

More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai

More Transportation Prints

Frequently Asked Questions

Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).

Yes — Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki is part of the Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road series by Kawanabe Kyosai.

Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki depicts transportation, tōkaidō, and travel scenes.