Crossing the Bridge at Sano

Date:: c. 1774
Medium:: Color woodblock print; koban
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Description

Crossing the Bridge at Sano, dating to around 1774, is a 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 color, and the Sano bridge subject demonstrates how the Eight Views and 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 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 and actor prints.

More Prints by Kitao Shigemasa

Autumn Moon over Sumida River (Sumida aki zuki), from the series "Eight Views of the Sumida River (Sumidagawa hakkei)"

early 1760s

Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e

No. 5: Noda River in Mutsu Province, from the series "Six Jewel Rivers of the Floating World (Ukiyo Mu Tamagawa)"

c. 1769

Color woodblock print; hosoban

No. 6: Tama River of Koyasan in Kii Province, from the series "Six Jewel Rivers of the Floating World (Ukiyo Mu Tamagawa)"

c. 1769

Color woodblock print; hosoban

The Actor Ichimura Uzaemon IX as shirabyoshi dancer Makomo no Mae in the joruri "Iru ni Makase Yumiharizuki," performed at the Ichimura Theater in the eleventh month, 1767

1767

Color woodblock print; hosoban, benizuri-e

More Bridges Prints

Fair Weather After Snow at Yamato Bridge, Kyoto (Yamato bashi no yukibare), Taishô period, dated 1924

Woodblock print

Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"

1947

Color woodblock print; oban

Shin Ohashi Bridge (Shin Ohashi), from the series "Twenty View of Tokyo (Tokyu nijukkei)"

1926

Color woodblock print; oban

Sacred Bridge in Nikko (Nikko Shinkyo)

1930

Color woodblock print; oban

Frequently Asked Questions

Crossing the Bridge at Sano was created by Kitao Shigemasa (北尾重政) in c. 1774.

Crossing the Bridge at Sano depicts bridges.