Nightly View of Hiki-fune at Koume in Tokyo

Hiki-fune (曳舟, literally tow-boat) was a canal district in Koume, in the Sumida area of eastern Tokyo, where boats were historically hauled by rope through shallow waterways connecting the Sumida River to inland areas. The nocturnal view of this working-class district east of the Sumida brings Kiyochika's light-picture method to a subject outside the more-frequently depicted Yamanote and central-city locations. Canal scenes offered particular atmospheric possibilities: the still water surface as a mirror for lamplight, the low-horizon geometry of flat, rectilinear waterways cutting through reed-bordered banks. Figures on the towpath or aboard moored vessels would be rendered in silhouette against the illuminated water. The Koume area retained much of its older Edo character into the early Meiji period, providing Kiyochika with a subject that negotiated between the old city he documented and the modernizing one transforming around it. The moist, diffuse atmosphere suggested by riverside subjects suited his bokashi-heavy printing technique.