Meguro Drum Bridge and Sunset Hill – Utagawa Hiroshige (1857)

A hush of snow over the drum bridge at Meguro. In this winter view, Utagawa Hiroshige looks down on a high arched stone bridge spanning a deep blue river. Snow weighs down the branches of the trees on the hillside, and a few travellers, bent under their hats and umbrellas, make their way across the white slope and over the bridge. The dark sky, the falling flakes and the deep blue river make the cold almost tangible.

The bridge was nicknamed taikobashi, the “drum bridge”, for its rounded shape. The hill above it, Yūhi no oka or “Sunset Hill”, was a famous spot in Edo for watching the evening sun. Hiroshige chose to show it not at dusk but in the stillness of a snowfall, one of his favourite effects. The print belongs to One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), the great series he worked on in the last years of his life. It is number 111, part of the winter section, published in 1857.

Hiroshige, the poet of weather

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was the great master of the Japanese landscape print. Rain, mist, moonlight and snow transform his views of Edo and the roads of Japan into moments of pure atmosphere, and his compositions later fascinated Van Gogh and the Impressionists.

• Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
• Date: 1857
• Series: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, no. 111
• Technique: woodblock print (ukiyo-e)
• Format: vertical
• Theme: snow, winter, bridge, Edo

A calm winter print for a living room, a hallway or a study. Discover more of his views in our Hiroshige collection and our Christmas & Winter prints. Printed on thick matte archival paper. Free shipping, no minimum order. Shipped rolled in a sturdy tube.