Hiratsuka: Ferryboats on the Banyu River (Hiratsuka, Banyugawa watashibune), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)

Hiratsuka: Ferryboats on the Banyu River is Utagawa Hiroshige's view of the seventh station of the Tokaido in the 1832 Kyoka iri set, held by the Art Institute of Chicago (object 4298). Hiratsuka itself lay between Fujisawa and Oiso, but the design here focuses on the crossing of the Banyu River just beyond the station, where ferryboats carried travelers and their loads across the broad water. Hiroshige shows the riverbank in the foreground, with boats either drawn up on the sand or making for the far shore, and a soft middle distance closing the view. Figures wait at the water's edge or are seated in the boats, and the composition uses the strong horizontal of the river to organize the sheet. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the design illustrates a recurring theme in Hiroshige's Tokaido work: the way the road was punctuated by river crossings and ferry services, each with its own local character and pace. The Kyoka iri version is less dramatic than his more famous Hiratsuka design but rewards attention to its measured handling of water and air. For collectors of Edo ukiyo-e travel prints, the sheet reinforces the picture of Hiroshige as an artist deeply interested in the practical infrastructure of the highway as well as in its more iconic landmarks.