About This Print
Number twenty-five of the one hundred prints that make up the series Showa dai Tokyohyakuzue (One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo During Showa). Koizumi startedthis series in 1928 and completed it twelve years later in 1940. Sumida Park is in the foreground with the Kototoi Bridge, built in 1928 and reconstructed after WWII, in the background.For more information on this series see "The Series - One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo During Showa (Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue)" under the artist's biography.
Artist's Annotation
Source: MIT Visualizing Cultures website http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/tokyo_modern_02/annotation.htmlIn 1940, Koizumi created woodblock print charts containing print titles, dates, and comments for this series. His comment for this print follows:
“The Takeya ferry once crossed the Sumida River from here. Now the only reminder of the former look of the old river bank is the stone lantern. Now there is a modern park along the river.”
The area today with the Kototoi Bridge in the background
Other Impressions - Reference Images for this Print
 Sumida Park in Kototoi, Mukojima (No.25 of "One Hundred Scenes from Tokyo Metropolis in the Showa Period") color woodcut on paper 28.5×37.6 P00131-052 The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo |  |
Sumida Koen
A small park along the Sumida Gawa, across the river from Asakusa in Mukojima. Known for its cherry blossoms, which are illuminated in the evenings during hanami season, cherry trees were originally planted in this area by Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), the eighth Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. Following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, the banks of the river were reformed into a Reconstruction Park as a symbol of reconstruction, providing an urban open space and an evacuation area in case of disaster.Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #638 |
| Title | Kototoi at Sumida Park Sumida kōen Mukojima Kototoi 墨田公園 向島言問 |
| Series | One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue 昭和大東京百図絵 |
| Reference Number | #25 (artist's annotated portfolio list from c. 1940) |
| Artist | Koizumi Kishio (1893-1945) |
| Signature | Izumi character 泉 in image |
| Seal | |
| Publication Date | April 1932 |
| Edition | unknown |
| Publisher | likely self-published; some sources list publisher as Asahi Press (see "The Publisher of the Series" under the artist's bio Koizumi Kishio.) |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - moderate toning with 1/4" diameter brown spot (likely a printing defect) in sky. |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Genre | sosaku hanga (creative prints) |
| Format | dai oban |
| H x W Paper | 11 7/8 x 15 1/2 in. (30.2 x 39.4 cm) |
| H x W Image | 11 1/4 x 14 3/4 x in. (28.6 x 37.5 cm) |
| Collections This Print | TheNational Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo P00131-052; Carnegie Museum of Art 89.28.838.1 |
| Reference Literature | Tokyo: The Imperial Capital Woodblock prints by Koizumi Kishio,1928-1940, Marianne Lamonaca, The Wolfsonian-Florida InternationalUniversity, 2004, p. 95; Modern Japanese Prints: The Twentieth Century, Amanda T. Zehnder, Carnegie Museum of Art, 2009, p.94. |
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