Crossing the Bridge at Sano

Crossing the Bridge at Sano, dating to around 1774, is a [koban](/glossary/koban) color woodblock print held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The title alludes to the classical waka tradition in which the bridge at Sano in Kozuke Province (modern Gunma) was a poetic toponym associated with travelers crossing in snow or rain, and with the loneliness of journeys far from the capital. The koban (small format) sheet, often trimmed for inclusion in albums, made literary landscape prints accessible to modest collectors. By the early 1770s, Shigemasa was working in full [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) color, and the Sano bridge subject demonstrates how the Eight Views and [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous-place pictures) traditions intersected with literary reference in his output. The figure crossing the bridge gives the composition human scale and ties the classical poetic reference to the contemporary genre conventions of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) travel imagery. The Art Institute of Chicago's small-format Shigemasa prints document an underappreciated strand of his work - the literate landscape subject - alongside his better-known [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) and actor prints.