Suruga-cho, No. 8 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)
What distinguishes Hiroshige's design in this print is its resolute symmetry, softened only by the irregular stylized cloud forms traditionally used in Japanese paintings to separate scenes in pictorial narratives. Here this compositional device focuses attention on Mount Fuji above and the urban bustle below in the street called Suruga-chō. Included in this scene is Japan's premier store, Echigoya, presently Mitsukoshi Department Store, still the most venerable of all the great merchandisers of Tokyo. It is identified by its crest, a circle around the characters for "three" and "well," which together read "Mitsui."
9th month of 1856
Edo Period, Ansei Era
Image: 13 1/2 x 8 5/8 in. (34.3 x 21.9 cm)
Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 1/8 in. (36 x 23.2 cm) (show scale)
No publisher's seal visible, probably lost when left edge was trimmed.
This item is not on view
Gift of Anna Ferris
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Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando) (Japanese, 1797-1858). Suruga-cho, No. 8 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 9th month of 1856. Woodblock print, Image: 13 1/2 x 8 5/8 in. (34.3 x 21.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Anna Ferris, 30.1478.8
overall, 30.1478.8_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
Mid-day scene looking part Edo's premier store, the Echigoya, (today Mitsukoshi Department Store and still the most venerable and most fashionable of all the great merchandisers of Tokyo). The name "Suruga-cho" was taken from the view itself, after the province (today Shizuoka Prefecture) in whose territory the summit of Mount Fuji lay. The circle design repeated along the store is the Mitsui (family name) trademark. Echigoya (the name designating the Mitsui family origins in the province which is now Niigata Prefecture) occupied both corners of Suruga-cho, as seen here from the main Nihonbashi thoroughfare. The store on the left (today the department store, renamed Mitsukoshi in 1904 by taking one character each from "Mitsui" and "Echigoya") dealt in silk fabrics, while the one on the right (today the Mitsui Bank) dealt in nonsilk fabrics. Among the diverse figures in the street are men shouldering large blue packs filled with dry goods ready for delivery. Note the "Genji" clouds (named after their use in illustrated versions of the "Tale of Genji"), one of several cloud forms used in traditional Japanese painting, originally to separate scenes in pictorial narration.
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