Yoshino River in Yamato Province

Yoshino River in Yamato Province is an 1843 landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 to 1858), part of the Edo ukiyo-e designer's broader survey of Japan's most celebrated scenic spots. The Yoshino River runs through Yamato Province, the heartland of ancient Japan that contained the imperial capitals of Asuka and Nara and the mountainous region of Yoshino to the south. Yoshino itself was one of the most poetically celebrated places in Japan, associated with cherry blossoms, with mountain Buddhism, and with the medieval struggle of the Southern Court. The river that bore the region's name flowed through this storied landscape, making it a natural subject for the meisho-e tradition that compiled views of famous places into print series. Hiroshige composes the view with the broad horizontal sweep of the river occupying the central plane, the mountainous terrain of Yamato rising on either bank, and small craft or figures providing scale within the larger natural setting. As a landscape print, the work participates in Hiroshige's wider project of bringing the famous places of Japan into the visual reach of a townspeople audience concentrated in Edo, far to the east. The 1843 date places this print in the productive middle of his career, contemporary with his Edo views and his thematic series of elements and seasons. The impression is preserved in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where it sits among the museum's substantial holdings of Hiroshige landscape prints spanning the road series, the Edo views, and the broader provincial inventories.