River Scene
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
Tokyo's identity as a river city -- crossed by the Sumida and laced with canals before postwar reclamation -- runs through Koizumi's One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo. A general river scene within that project records working waterway life: barges and small boats, embankment trees, low warehouses or tea-stall awnings along the bank. Compositionally, mokuhanga river views typically use the water as a horizontal band of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi)-graded blue or grey, with reflected light suggested by carefully reserved white paper. Koizumi's status as designer, carver, and printer let him push the water tones through multiple subtle impressions rather than the standard two or three passes. Within his oeuvre, river views functioned as connective tissue between named landmark prints, asserting that Tokyo's character lay equally in its everyday waterways. The subject descends from the Edo [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition of Sumida-bashi and Ryōgoku views by Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Color woodblock print; oban
![Kiba Lumberyard along the River at Fukugawa (New Edition) [Fukagawa-ku, kiba no kawasuji (shinpan)], from the series "One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era (Showa dai Tokyo fukei hyaku zue hanga)" by Kishio Koizumi](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/f6380c15-6d23-c26a-899d-08ead4db792b/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1940
Color woodblock print; oban
Nikko Chuzenjiko
1930
Color woodblock print; oban
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Niigata Gosaibori
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
River Scene was created by Kishio Koizumi (小泉癸巳男).
River Scene depicts rivers & lakes.