Signed: Hiroshige ga; Publisher’s seal: Ho’eidō han (Takeuchi Magohachi); ōban, yoko-e, 22.8 x 35.4 cm; nishiki-e with fukibokashi and musenzuri

From the series “Eight Views of Ōmi”. This view extends far beyond the southern end of Lake Biwa, where it flows into the Setagawa River, which later expands to become the Uji River. A long wooden bridge spans the water; in the background is the silhouette of Mount Mikamiyama, called the “Fuji of Ōmi”. In a box on the left is the corresponding waka: “Leaving the showers of the rainy season / and Moriyama far / behind us, / in the evening glow we cross / the long bridge of Seta.”

F. Tikotin, La Tour de Peilz (March 1968); Haviland(?)
Riese Collection #144

Too few impressions of this print have been reproduced in the literature to come to any sure conclusion about the sequence of states, particularly since none of the reproduced impressions is in colour. It would seem, however, that impressions like that in the Takahashi collection (Ukiyo-e Taikei, Vol. 11, no. 157), and in the Vignier and Inada catalogue (Toyokuni, Hiroshige, no. 231, Pl. LXIII) with the publisher’s seal below Hiroshige’s signature completely encircled by a white line in reserve are the earlier impressions, and that impressions like the Riese one and the Happer one reproduced in Stewart (Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Prints, pl. 22, no. 3) with the seal characters clogged and the right and bottom edges of the seal either broken or removed, are later. In early impressions the lake is printed with the strongest blue in the foreground, and the rest very lightly, with only a slight change of tone around the lines of mist in the middle distance. In the Happer impression the transition is more distinct, but even so, there is a change in colour in the foreground on either side of the bridge, while here the entire foreground is printed in a uniform tone. On some early impressions, like that reproduced in the Vignier and Inala catalogue, only the cone of the mountain in the distance seems to be printed. On other impressions, the grey of the mountain blends delicately with the yellow of clouds in the sky, producing a lovely twilight effect, as here.