Hongo red gate

A view of the Akamon — literally "Red Gate" — at the present-day University of Tokyo in the Hongo district. The gate was built in 1827 for the marriage of Tokugawa Ienari's daughter Yasuhime into the Maeda clan and survives as one of the few intact Edo-period structures in central Tokyo. As a meisho-e subject, it links Kasamatsu to the long tradition of Tokyo views that runs from Hiroshige through the shin-hanga generation. The print's compositional anchor would be the vermillion (shu) of the gate's lacquered timbers against the muted greens, greys, or sepia of surrounding trees and walls. Kasamatsu lived his entire life in Tokyo, having been born in Asakusa in 1898, and his Tokyo views form a substantial portion of his approximately 280 designs.