Ookawabata
- Date:
- Not set
- Medium:
- Watercolor
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
Typical Price
$1,500–$12,000. Common subjects: $1,500–$4,000. Key value factors: Shimura's refined bijin-ga have a devoted collector base. Earlier prints and rarer subjects command premiums.
Description
This watercolor painting depicts a scene along the Ookawabata, the embankment area along the Sumida River in Tokyo. Shimura Tatsumi works here in a medium different from his usual woodblock prints, using watercolor's fluid transparency to capture the riverbank's atmosphere. The Ookawabata district carried associations of old Edo pleasure culture and riverside life, making it a resonant setting for a bijin-ga subject. Shimura's choice of watercolor over woodblock suggests a more spontaneous, personal approach to the scene, the medium's immediacy suited to capturing a fleeting impression of a woman by the river rather than constructing the layered formality of a print.
More Prints by Shimura Tatsumi
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ookawabata was created by Shimura Tatsumi (志村立美) in Not set.
Ookawabata was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (Not set).
Ookawabata depicts urban scenes and rivers & lakes.