Ferry on the Rokugo River

Ferry on the Rokugo River is a 1779 woodblock print by Torii Kiyonaga, preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Rokugo, the lower stretch of the Tama River where it formed the southwestern boundary of Edo, was crossed by a long-established ferry that travelers on the Tokaido road were required to use because the shogunate forbade bridging the river at this point. Kiyonaga depicts the crowded ferry boat with passengers and porters aboard, the broad expanse of water occupying much of the composition. The subject lies between the territory of Edo bijin-ga, in which the figures in their fashionable dress would feel at home, and the topographical meisho-e tradition that Kiyonaga had already engaged in his Kinruzan and Chamise jikkei series. As head of the Torii school, Kiyonaga brings the same graphic discipline to this riverine subject that he applies to teahouse and theater designs, organizing figures along the boat's gunwale and using the rhythmic poles of the ferrymen to set the composition's pace. The print testifies to the importance of the Rokugo crossing in Edo period travel, and its handling of an open river surface anticipates the panoramic landscape interests that would become more central in subsequent decades. The Art Institute of Chicago documents this impression among its Kiyonaga holdings, where it functions as a useful counterweight to the artist's better-known indoor and pleasure-quarter subjects. The work demonstrates Kiyonaga's readiness to apply Torii school strengths to landscape contexts.