Isunohaza

Medium:: Woodblock print
Source:: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Image courtesy of: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Description

Isunohaza designates a district within the complex urban geography of Edo, and this print likely records a streetscape or waterfront characteristic of the area. Hiroshige's views of lesser-known Edo neighborhoods tend toward the intimate rather than the panoramic: a narrow road, overhanging eaves, a glimpse of canal or embankment. The absence of a dominant temple or bridge as compositional anchor places greater weight on atmosphere—the quality of light, the season indicated by trees or snow or rain, the incidental detail of figures going about daily tasks. The oban format, if used, would afford enough vertical space to capture the layered rooflines of a dense urban block. Such prints served as a kind of topographical record, mapping a city undergoing rapid physical change.