HIROSHIGE

"Outside Hibiya, Seen from Sukiya-gashi"
("Sukiya-gashi yori Hibi[ya] soto o miru", "すきやがしより日比（谷）外を見る")

Series: Famous Places in Edo (Edo meisho, 江戸名所)

1858

Comment - Outside Hibiya, Seen from Sukiya-gashi, 1858 - Terrific view outside Hibiya at New Year's, as seen from Sukiya-gashi. In the foreground, a girl and two beauties play Hanetsuki, a traditional New Year holiday game similar to badminton using battledores and a shuttlecock. Above, a Yakko ("yakko-dako", "奴凧") or man kite (servant kite) flies above the moat and four Edo kites ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧") with their long tails, can be seen above the distant rooftops. The daimyo's mansion along the opposite shore is decorated for the season with traditional displays of pine and bamboo flanking the gate at the water of the moat. Mt. Fuji rises in the distance, and a few fire towers can be seen above the houses.

Another version of this successful Series, depicting about the same scene in "landscape" (horizontal) version, is to be found as "Hibiya and Soto-Sakurada from Yamashita-cho" ("Benkei Moat")" (1858), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei).

Series - "Famous Places in Edo" (Edo meisho, 江戸名所). Another woodblock from the same series, containing kites is "Bishamonten Messenger Visiting Mount Atago in Shiba on the Third Day of the New Year". For information about other Series of Hiroshige, refer to Hiroshige's "Tokaido" and other series.

Artist - see Biography

Signature - "Hiroshige ga" (広重画); Censor's seal: "Horse 3" ("午三" Wu-sen)

Publisher - Yamada-ya Shôjirô (山田屋庄次郎), seal, lower left, below the circular censor's seal (Uma san, 午三)

Image Size - 21.6 x 34.0 cm (8 1/2" x 13 3/8") + margins

Condition - single sheet; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Horizontal ôban; Yoko-e ('landscape')

(1797 - 1858)

Outside Hibiya, Seen from Sukiya-gashi