Japanese Woodblock Print, original 8/1858, this Showa era from recarved woodblocks

SIZE IN INCHES: yatsugiri-ban approx. 4 x 5.8 inches

COMMENTS: Number 98 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

DURING THE HOT MONTHS OF SUMMER AND EARLY FALL, from about July through September in the Western calendar, the Sumida river was open to evening use by pleasure boats, a custom known as "taking in the cool of the evening." The center of activity was Rogoku Bridge, where an endless variety of entertainment was offered on both land and water. For the true connoisseur of the evening cool, the place to be was not in the crowded stalls of the bridgehead plazas, but rather in one of the restaurants of Yanagibashi, a bit north of the bridge on the west side, or in an individually chartered plesure boat on the river itself.

The view that Hiroshige offers here is to the southeast from Yanagibashi, implying the viewpoint of the elegant restaurants that traditionally cosponsored the major firework displays together with the boathouses. On the river below, we see several types of pleasure boats. The large boat in the center is a "palace boat." Up to fifty feet in length, with an interior space of as many as twenty tatami mats, these boats were hired out for parties by rich merchants. Next down in size and most numerous in this view are th familiar "roof boats." Smallest are the uncovered chokibune, the basic taxis of the Sumida.

Fireworks were an indispensable feature of the evening cool at Ryogoku Bridge.

Fine, no flaws