Ochanomizu

This print depicts the Ochanomizu district of Tokyo, a section of the Kanda River valley that became one of the most recognizable landmarks of Meiji-era urban transformation. The name Ochanomizu — meaning "tea water" — derives from the practice of drawing the pure river water for the shogun's tea. Kiyochika's treatment likely emphasizes the steep embankments and the interplay of natural and built environments: rail lines, stone retaining walls, and the river below. Characteristically, Kiyochika employs graduated bokashi gradations in the sky to establish atmospheric depth, with reflected light animating the water's surface. The print belongs to his kosen-ga approach, in which Western chiaroscuro principles are absorbed into the woodblock medium, creating tonal relationships foreign to earlier ukiyo-e landscape conventions. Ochanomizu was a subject he returned to across multiple prints, each exploring different atmospheric conditions above the same topography.