Evening Snow at Mimeguri, Eight Views of the Sumida River (Sumidagawa hakkei, Mimeguri bosetsu), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho no uchi)," was produced around 1835 by Utagawa Hiroshige. The print belongs to a long East Asian tradition of "Eight Views" sets, which adapt the classical Xiao-Xiang sequence, evening snow, autumn moon, returning sails, and so on, to local sites. Hiroshige and other Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) designers repeatedly applied this template to the Sumida River, the urban waterway that ran through northeastern Edo and provided sites for shrines, leisure, and seasonal observation. Mimeguri Shrine, on the river's east bank, was famous for its Inari deity and for its low embankment view of the city, and "Evening Snow at Mimeguri" became a recognized motif. In this design, Hiroshige overlays the shrine precincts, the river, and the city beyond with a quiet but heavy snowfall: tree branches and torii are dusted, while a soft grey sky meets a paler ground in a band of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) grading. Figures, boats, and architecture are reduced to silhouettes and outlines, an Edo ukiyo-e shorthand for weather and quiet evening light. This impression is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it joins many of Hiroshige's most poetic Sumida designs. The landscape print here is doubly literary, anchored to a poetic series and to a celebrated site, and it shows how Hiroshige domesticated continental motifs into a fully Edo sensibility.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Evening Snow at Mimeguri, Eight Views of the Sumida River (Sumidagawa hakkei, Mimeguri bosetsu), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho no uchi)" was created by Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) in c. 1840/42.
Yes — Evening Snow at Mimeguri, Eight Views of the Sumida River (Sumidagawa hakkei, Mimeguri bosetsu), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho no uchi)" is part of the Famous Places in the Eastern Capital series by Utagawa Hiroshige.
Evening Snow at Mimeguri, Eight Views of the Sumida River (Sumidagawa hakkei, Mimeguri bosetsu), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho no uchi)" depicts landscapes, edo & tokyo, and winter.
