A Picture of Prosperity: America (Amerika shin no zu)
亜墨利加州の図
- Date:
- 1861
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; ōban triptych
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
A Picture of Prosperity: America (Amerika shin no zu) is one of Hiroshige II's most ambitious Yokohama-e triptychs, published in 1861 and depicting an imagined view of an American port city seen through the visual conventions of late Edo woodblock printing. The print belongs to the wave of Yokohama-e issued in the years immediately after the 1859 opening of Yokohama: prints depicting the new foreign settlement, its residents, and — as in this sheet — the distant lands from which they had come. Without firsthand access to the United States, Hiroshige II constructed his American city from imported lithographs, foreign newspapers, and the visual reports of Japanese envoys and merchants. The composition arranges Western brick buildings, a steamship and sailing vessel in the harbor, horse-drawn carriages, and Western figures in top hats and crinolines in a single panoramic triptych, with the title cartouche framing the scene as a portrait of foreign prosperity at the cusp of Japan's own opening. The Art Institute of Chicago impression (1925.3398) was acquired with the Emily Crane Chadbourne gift and is one of the most ambitious treaty-port prints in the collection.
More Prints by Utagawa Hiroshige II
Hase Temple, Yamato Province (Yamato Hasedera), from the series One Hundred Famous Views in the Various Provinces (Shokoku meisho hyakkei)
諸国名所百景 大和初瀬寺
1859
Color woodblock print
The Interior of the Gankirō in Yokohama (Yokohama Gankirō mikomi no zu)
横浜岩亀楼見込之図
1860
Color woodblock print; ōban triptych
Stork, Sun, and Pine
鶴日松図
c. 1839–1864
Color woodblock print
Tsūten-kyō Bridge, Tōfuku Temple, Kyoto (Kyōto Tōfukuji Tsūtenkyō bashi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views in the Various Provinces (Shokoku meisho hyakkei)
諸国名所百景 京都東福寺通天橋
1859
Color woodblock print
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Picture of Prosperity: America (Amerika shin no zu) (亜墨利加州の図) was created by Utagawa Hiroshige II (二代目歌川広重) in 1861.
A Picture of Prosperity: America (Amerika shin no zu) depicts landscapes.