The Great Bridge at Matsue

This early numbered version in Kazuma Oda's series on the Matsue Ôhashi likely establishes the compositional framework that subsequent prints in the set would vary and develop. Matsue's great bridge was a structure of historical significance, connecting the castle town across a navigable waterway that links the freshwater Lake Shinji to the brackish Nakaumi lagoon. Oda's print probably shows the bridge from a low vantage point along the water, the long horizontal span of the wooden structure extending across the composition with the castle or surrounding hills visible beyond. The Ôhashi River or Lake Shinji would occupy the lower portion, its surface reflecting sky and bridge in the calm water characteristic of this sheltered inland setting. Oda's sustained attention to the Matsue bridge across multiple prints demonstrates the shin-hanga tradition's regional breadth, documenting a part of Japan—the San'in coast—that received less international attention than the Tôkaidô corridor or Kansai.