Autumn Moon at Matsuchiyama

Autumn Moon at Matsuchiyama, dated 1843, is a quintessential meisho-e by Utagawa Hiroshige that connects two of his enduring loves: the topography of Edo and the poetic tradition of moon viewing. Matsuchiyama, a small wooded hill on the western bank of the Sumida River near the gate to the Yoshiwara pleasure district, was a famous spot for lunar autumn outings, especially during the harvest moon of the eighth lunar month. Hiroshige raises the moon high in the upper register and silhouettes the dark cone of the hill, the temple roof of Matsuchiyama Shoden, and the masts of riverboats against a pale sky tinted with the gradated bokashi printing typical of the Edo ukiyo-e tradition. The lower part of the sheet opens onto the river, where a single boat, perhaps a pleasure barge of geisha and clients bound upriver, glides through the moonlit water. The print's lyrical economy, with vast expanses of carefully judged negative space, is characteristic of the landscape print mode that Hiroshige refined throughout the 1840s. The work is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection of Japanese prints, where it represents the artist's continuing engagement with Sumida-side moon themes that would culminate in his late views of Edo.