kototoi-21128

This print likely depicts Kototoi Bridge (言問橋), the cantilever truss span completed in 1928 across the Sumida River near Asakusa. The bridge took its name from a poem by Ariwara no Narihira, anchoring a piece of modern Tokyo infrastructure to classical waka tradition. Fukazawa would have approached the subject in the sosaku-hanga manner: sketching from observation, then carving and printing the blocks himself rather than delegating to a craft team. The visible gouge marks left by hand-carving distinguish such work from the polished surfaces of contemporary shin-hanga river views by Kawase Hasui or Tsuchiya Koitsu. Fukazawa's prewar production frequently turned to bridges, embankments, and waterways — sites where Tokyo's reconstruction after the 1923 Kanto earthquake produced new vantages on the city. Working alongside fellow members of the Nihon Sosaku-Hanga Kyokai, he treated the modern bridge as material for personal expression rather than as a meisho-e tourist subject.