Watching the Water Festival from Azuma Bridge, from the series "Eight Precincts of the Kinryuzan Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kinruzan hakkei)"
- Date:
- c. 1782
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Watching the Water Festival from Azuma Bridge, from the series Eight Precincts of the Kinryuzan Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kinruzan hakkei), is a 1777 Torii Kiyonaga design that applies the eight-views (hakkei) format to the precincts and approaches of Sensoji, Edo's most important temple, in Asakusa. Kinryuzan was Sensoji's mountain name, and the series identifies eight associated locations — bridges, gates, riverside precincts — each presented with figures of contemporary Edo. The Azuma Bridge sheet depicts spectators on or near the famous Sumida crossing observing one of the river's seasonal water festivals, with the bridge itself probably entering the composition as architectural framing. Kiyonaga's fusion of meisho topography with the [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) figural tradition is fully on display: the named site supplies the geographic anchor, and the fashionable women supply the human interest. By 1777 the Torii school under his leadership had committed substantial capacity to such meisho-bijin series, complementing the school's continuing kabuki-signboard production. The Asakusa Kinruzan hakkei is a key early step in Kiyonaga's lifelong engagement with Edo's specific places, anticipating the great Sumida compositions of the following decade. The Art Institute of Chicago records this 1777 design among its Kiyonaga meisho holdings.
c. 1787
Color woodblock print; center and right sheets of oban triptych
c. 1786
Color woodblock print; koban
c. 1787
Color woodblock print; oban triptych
c. 1788
Color woodblock print; right sheet of oban triptych
Woodblock print
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
1926
Color woodblock print; oban
1930
Color woodblock print; oban
Watching the Water Festival from Azuma Bridge, from the series "Eight Precincts of the Kinryuzan Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kinruzan hakkei)" was created by Torii Kiyonaga (鳥居清長) in c. 1782.
Watching the Water Festival from Azuma Bridge, from the series "Eight Precincts of the Kinryuzan Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kinruzan hakkei)" depicts bridges.