
Asakusa Onmayagashi, from the series Edo meisho dōke zukushi (Comical Views of Famous Places in Edo)
浅草 御厩河岸 — 江戸名所道化尽
- Date:
- 1859
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print (nishiki-e)
Description
Asakusa Onmayagashi (浅草御厩河岸, 'Asakusa Imperial-Stable Quay'), from Utagawa Hirokage's Edo meisho dōke zukushi ('Comical Views of Famous Places in Edo'), is a vertical ōban color woodblock print published in 1859 by Tsujiokaya Bunsuke. The site is a riverside landing on the west bank of the Sumida River in the Asakusa district, named for the Tokugawa shogunate's nearby stables (onmaya) and famous as one of the principal ferry crossings to the Honjo and Mukōjima districts on the east bank. Hiroshige had depicted the same quay in his Hyakkei (1857), making it one of the canonical [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) sites of north Edo. Hirokage's treatment reframes the quay as a stage for comic incident — porters and passengers caught in the confusion of an ordinary loading scene — with the river ferry, the embankment, and the distant tile roofs of Asakusa providing the recognizable topographical frame. The Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division holds an impression of this sheet (LCCN 2008660928), part of its Japanese fine prints pre-1915 collection and freely available through the Library's open-access digital program.



