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- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Image courtesy of
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
Description
This woodblock print belongs to Kiyochika's sustained engagement with Tokyo as the primary subject of his art, a project that documented the city through two decades of accelerating modernization. The composition likely features a canal, a bridge, or a waterfront district characteristic of the low-lying shitamachi area where Kiyochika grew up. His personal familiarity with these neighborhoods gave the Tokyo views an intimacy and topographic accuracy that distinguished them from conventional [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e). The printing deploys several key-block variants for outlines and separate blocks for the graduated sky tone, with the blue-black ink mixed to achieve the particular evening cast that recurs across his nocturnal series.