About This Print
The artist Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842–1894) designed at least nine different series of prints showing depictions of Tokyo landmarks. This scene shows Asakusa Bridge in the foreground with a double-decker horse drawn omnibus on the bridge and Yanagi Bridge in the background along the Kanda River.
The numbers 一五七 (157) are shown in the left margin. It is not known what these numbers reference. Other prints in this series do not show any numbers in the left margin.
The Double-Decker Omnibus
Source: Mediating Modernity – Henry Black and Narrated Hybridity in Meiji Japan (a submitted thesis), Ian Douglas McArthur, University of Sydney, 2002, p. 229.
"The first horse-drawn omnibus in Tokyo was operated from 1872 by the entrepreneur Yuri Narimasa along a route between Karminarimon in Asakusa and Shinbashi. Yuri attracted customers to the omnibus by blowing on a trumpet. In 1874, he imported from Britain a double-decker omnibus for the same route, but the service was suspended the same year after the omnibus struck and killed a woman at Kotobuki-cho in Asakusa."
Other Prints by Hiroshige III of the Same Scene
 Asakusa Bridge (Asakusabashi), from the series Detailed Pictures of Tokyo (Tokyo meisai zue), 1874 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts 1963.30.5144 |  Yorozuya (publisher) Yanagi Bridge from Asakusa Bridge (Asakusabashi yori Yanagibashi no kei), from the series Thirty-six Views of Modern Tokyo (Tokyo kaika sanjurokkei), 1874 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts 1963.30.5139 |
 Hiroshige III , Japanese, 1843–1894 Shorindo (publisher) Yanagi Bridge from the Stone Bridge of Asakusa (Asakusa Ishibashi yori Yanagibashi no zu), from the series Famous Places in Tokyo (Tokyo meisho), 1873 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts 1963.30.5701abc |
 Hiroshige III , Japanese, 1843–1894 An illustration of Tokyo Asakusa Stone Bridge from Kanda River Yanagi Bridge, c. 1874 東京浅草石橋ヨリ 神田川柳橋之図 |
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #484 |
| Title or Description | View from Asakusa Bridge to Yanagi Bridge Asakusabashi yori Yanagibashi no kei 浅草橋より柳橋の景 |
| Artist | Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842–1894) |
| Series | Famous Places in Tokyo 東京名所の内 Tōkyō meisho no uchi |
| Signature | Hiroshige ga |
| Seal | none |
| Publication Date | c. 1874 |
| Publisher | Yorozuya Magobei 万屋孫兵衛 (no publisher seal appears on print but other prints in the series identify the publisher as Yorozuya Magobei) |
| Carver | |
| Impression | good |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - minor wrinkling, some soiling within image; ink smudges in margins from printing process; margins untrimmed |
| Genre | nishiki-e; meisho-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | oban |
| H x W Paper | 9 3/4 x 14 1/2 in. (24.8 x 36.8 cm) |
| H x W Image | 8 3/8 x 13 3/8 in. (21.3 x 34 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print |
12/11/2020
3/27/2020
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