Perspective Print: Shinobazu Pond

A woodblock print in ink and color on paper, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, depicting Shinobazu Pond in Ueno, one of the great public scenic sites of Edo. Shinobazu was famous for its lotus blossoms in summer and for the small island of Bentendo at its centre, and was a regular subject of meisho-e from the eighteenth century onward. The Met identifies the print as a 'perspective print' (uki-e), placing it within Toyoharu's defining genre: the curve of the embankment, the bridge to Benten Island, the trees of the pond, and the temple buildings beyond are all organised by an orthogonal recession appropriate to the uki-e method. The print is a useful comparison piece for his other major perspective designs, including the Tagonoura Fuji and the kabuki-theatre interior in the Art Institute of Chicago, because it shows him applying the same perspective system to a famous Edo place rather than to a Chinese, fantastic, or foreign subject. Through prints like this one Toyoharu domesticated European linear perspective into the most central category of the Edo print market, the depiction of the capital's own celebrated sights.