Uji Bridge

Hasui's print of the Uji Bridge captures the ancient river crossing at Uji, a city south of Kyoto associated with green tea cultivation, the monumental phoenix hall of Byodoin, and the climactic chapters of the Tale of Genji. The bridge spans the lower register of the composition, its wooden or stone railing creating a horizontal structural rhythm while the Uji River fills the foreground with reflected sky and the movement of clear water. Hasui's treatment of river reflections is characteristically precise: the broken mirroring of the bridge and surrounding landscape differentiated from the undisturbed current by careful carving that captures the directional movement of water. The surrounding landscape — potentially including Byodoin's pagoda in the background or riverside pine and cherry trees in the foreground — situates the bridge within Uji's specific historical and scenic geography. This is the first of three catalogued versions of the subject in Hasui's published work.