Cooling Off at Ryogoku in Edo

This Metropolitan Museum of Art triptych depicts Cooling Off at Ryogoku in Edo — the great summer subject of noryo at Ryogoku Bridge over the Sumida River. Across the three sheets the composition opens out into a wide riverscape filled with boats, lantern-lit pleasure barges, vendors, and fashionable strollers; the Metropolitan's catalogue catalogues the work as a woodblock-print triptych in ink and color on paper. As one of the great triptych formats of early-nineteenth-century ukiyo-e, the Ryogoku noryo composition allowed Eizan to deploy his entire visual repertoire — multiple bijin figures, atmospheric river setting, summer kimono patterning, and architectural elements — in a single coordinated design. The print is one of the major Eizan compositions in the Met's holdings and an excellent example of how Kikukawa-school bijin-ga could expand into ambitious scenic formats.