Sanjo Bridge

Sanjo Ohashi crosses the Kamo River in eastern Kyoto and served as the western terminus of the Tokaido, the great Edo-period highway from the shogunal capital. Hiroshige's Tokaido Gojusan-tsugi closes with a view of this bridge, and Tokuriki's print belongs to the long tradition of Sanjo Bridge meisho-e that runs from the Edo period into shin-hanga. Compositions of this subject typically present the bridge in lateral view spanning the breadth of the sheet, with the river bokashi-graded beneath and the Higashiyama hills rising behind. Tokuriki was born in Kyoto into a twelfth-generation family of print artisans associated with Honganji, and the city's bridges, temples, and seasonal weather formed the core of his published output across more than seven decades. Sanjo Bridge appears recurrently in his Kyoto series, treated under varying weather and times of day in the manner of Hiroshige's serial reworkings of single sites.