Japanese Woodblock Print, originally published 8/1856, this Showa era from recarved woodblocks

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

COMMENTS: Number 106 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

IN THIS, ONE OF SEVERAL FAMOUS SNOW SCENES IN THE "WINTER GROUP", Hiroshige offers an evocative view within the lumberyards of the Fukagawa area. It is a compositional tour de force in the intricate balance of interlocked diagonals and vertical accents. The deep blue of the water (missing, as is the wisp of black cloud in later editions) establishes the curving axis. The leaning poles and near banks echo its movement, as does the descending zigzag of paired life forms: two sparrows, two loggers, two puppies, and finally the artist and us, gazing over the scene from under the pale yellow umbrella at the bottom, personalized with the "fish" mark of the publisher Uoei.

So perfect is the composition and so lyrical the effect that one would scarecely imagine this to be a real place. It is clearly derived, however, from a wider view in the Ehon Edo miyage, whose detail and conception suggests that the artist was working from direct observation. It would be difficult, to be sure, to pinpoint the location, given the complexity of the bridge and canal system of the Kiba district, but it is an important reminder that Hiroshige depicted real places, however idealized they may appear.

VG with flaws as shown