Hiroshige transformed Japanese landscape printing through his mastery of bokashi (gradated wash) technique and sensitivity to weather, season, and light. His atmospheric landscapes directly influenced Impressionist painters in Europe after Japanese prints reached the West in the 1860s.
The Yodo River near Kyoto, depicted around 1834 as part of Hiroshige's series Famous Places in Kyoto. The Yodogawa was a major waterway connecting Kyoto to Osaka, its broad surface carrying commercial river traffic between the two great cities. Hiroshige captures the expansive horizontal sweep of the river, likely showing flat-bottomed boats and the low banks that characterize this stretch of water. The series applied the same meisho (famous places) format that Hiroshige used so successfully for Edo and the Tokaido road, turning Kyoto's celebrated sites into collectible oban prints that could bring the ancient capital's beauty into any home.
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.
Yodo River (Yodogawa), from the series "Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi)" was created by Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) in c. 1834.
Yes — Yodo River (Yodogawa), from the series "Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi)" is part of the Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi) series (print 2 of 9) by Utagawa Hiroshige.
Yodo River (Yodogawa), from the series "Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi)" depicts landscapes, rivers & lakes, and kyoto, set at Kyoto.
