Mannen Bridge

Mannen-bashi, the Eternal Bridge spanning the Onagi River in Tokyo's Fukagawa district, was a meisho-e subject treated by Hokusai and Hiroshige before Shotei addressed it. Shotei's version belongs to his extensive series of Tokyo and Edo views produced for the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and other publishers from the late Meiji period onward. The composition likely emphasizes the arc of the bridge against water and sky, employing the atmospheric perspective that distinguishes Shotei's landscape work from earlier ukiyo-e treatments of the same locations. Careful bokashi in the sky and water, applied by the printer with a damp brush across the woodblock, would establish the time of day and weather. Shotei's Tokyo views document a city undergoing rapid modernization, often choosing to depict bridges, temples, and waterways in a state suggesting the older Edo rather than the trams and Western buildings of the contemporary metropolis. This nostalgic vision of place became a defining characteristic of his contribution to shin-hanga's broader project.