About This Print
One in a series of prints showing famous places ("prides") in and around Tokyo. The Mansei Bridge, built and destroyed a number of times, spanned the Kanda river and was one of the major gateways to Tokyo. Its current iteration (see photo below), is located in present day Akihabara.
I took the road leading to the area below Surugadai until I reached the edge of Mansei Bridge. I was met by a ceaseless traffic of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants, rickshaw men and stablemen, all milling about in every direction. Some were shouting, others kicking up the dirt, or in a blaze or emotion over gains and losses, consumed with thoughts of luxury, starved for wealth and success, enslaved by their momentary passions. They behaved as though they were birds and beasts in a struggle for food. On the street, I alone stood still. With a sense of dejection and regret, I said to myself, “Ah! Is this indeed the way of life? What squalor and ugliness!” After returning to my room, I leaned against a table below the window. I arbitrarily took books from the shelf, wanting to know the foundation for ethics.1
present day Mansei Bridge
1 Preface to “A New Theory of Ethics" (Rinri shinsetsu), 1883, as translated by Richard M. Reitan, "Making of a Moral Society: Ethics and the State in Meiji Japan" University Of Hawai'i Press, 2009, p. 3.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1170 |
| Title or Description | Mansei Bridge 萬世橋 Mansei bashi |
| Series | A Comparison Metropolitan Tokyo’s Proud Heritage [also translated as Comparisons of the Prides of Tokyo] Tōkyō fuka jiman kurabe 東京府下自漫競 [東京府下自慢競] |
| Artist | Utagawa Kuniteru II (1830-1874) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | none |
| Publication Date |  |
| Publisher |  |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - wrinkling, minor soiling, full size, not backed, vertical 1/4" band of discoloration running through top half of print |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; meisho-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | oban |
| H x W Paper | 14 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (36.5 x 24.4 cm) |
| H x W Image | 13 1/8 x 8 5/8 in. (33.3 x 21.9 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | Tokyo Metropolitan Library 0412-C6 |
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