Fireworks At Ryogoku-bashi bridge

Fireworks at Ryogoku Bridge revisits one of the most enduring meisho-e subjects in Japanese printmaking, treated memorably by Hiroshige in his Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The annual summer fireworks over the Sumida River, launched from the Ryogoku district, drew crowds of spectators in pleasure boats and along the embankments. Shotei's composition likely silhouettes the arc of the bridge against a dark sky punctuated by exploding fireworks, with reflections scattering across the water below and small figures populating the scene. Achieving the brightness of fireworks against deep night demands precise registration of small color blocks against expansive dark fields, with the printer building the night sky through repeated impressions of indigo or sumi. The subject ties Shotei explicitly to the Edo pictorial tradition while allowing the softer atmospheric approach of shin-hanga to inflect the treatment. Festival and night-scene combinations like this one were popular with both domestic and Western collectors during the Taisho and early Showa periods, and Shotei produced many variant compositions on related themes.