近江八景之内 矢橋帰帆|Fishing Boats Returning to Yabase
ca. 1832
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
8 7/8 x 13 3/4 in. (22.5 x 34.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936
Accession Number
JP2472
Tags
Art Historical Context
Utagawa Hiroshige *Fishing Boats Returning toabase*, created around 1832, is a captivating woodblock print from his *Eight Views of O* (*Omi Hakkei no Uchi*). This depicts a poetic evening scene on Lake Biwa in Japan's Omi Province (modern-day Shiga Prefecture), where fishing boats glide toward the shore at Yabase under a vast, twilight sky. Hiroshige masterfully captures the tranquility of daily life during Japan's Edo period (16151868), evoking the region's natural beauty and the rhythm of rural existence. As a cornerstone of ukiyo-e—the "pictures of the floating world"—Hiroshige's print ex...
About the Artist
Utagawa Hiroshige · 1826–1869
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), born Andō Tokutarō, was the last great master of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking and one of the most influential landscape artists in history. Born in Edo (modern Tokyo) into a low-ranking samurai family serving as fire wardens, Hiroshige transformed landscape printmaking into a poetic meditation on nature, weather, and everyday life. His revolutionary approac...