View of the Sumida River in the Snow

View of the Sumida River in the Snow is an 1843 landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 to 1858), part of the broad and influential body of snow scenes through which the Edo ukiyo-e designer redefined the seasonal print. Hiroshige's snowscapes occupy a particular position in his output, exploiting the woodblock medium's capacity to leave broad fields of unprinted paper to suggest snow, with carefully placed black outlines and selective coloring registering trees, dwellings, and human figures against the white field. The Sumida River was a constant subject for Hiroshige, the principal artery of Edo life and a setting that lent itself to seasonal variations of cherry-blossom viewing in spring and snowfall in winter. In View of the Sumida River in the Snow, the river itself appears as a broad pale field, with the bordering embankments and bare trees rendered against the falling snow. The 1843 date situates the print in the middle phase of Hiroshige's career, contemporary with the elemental prints and historical figures he undertook under the constraints of the Tenpo Reforms, when restrictions on contemporary actor and courtesan subjects encouraged designers to seek alternative material. Landscape prints, with their morally neutral subject matter, were among the genres that flourished in this climate. View of the Sumida River in the Snow exemplifies the qualities that have made Hiroshige's snow scenes among the most admired in the history of Japanese printmaking: restraint of palette, atmospheric effect, and quiet observation of urban geography. The impression is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.