This is one of Hokusai's most well-known series, consisting of eleven known designs that, as the title suggests, depict all manner of bridges located at various locations throughout Japan. The proposed print depicts a precarious suspension bridge in a mountainous landscape. Two rural laborers heavily laden with goods cross the bridge, one depicted with his foot raised as if he is in motion, and the other at rest midway, gazing out at the vast scene spread out before and below her.
\r\nHokusai depicts the landscape in varying shades of blue, yellow, and green that, as in most of his prints, intensify the visual appeal of nature while they diverge from naturalistic description. Overall the palette (aside from some vivid blue) is pale, due not to fading but to an intentional choice of subdued hues. The woman is a surrogate for the viewer, her back to us (and thus facing the landscape as do we) as she looks in awed silence at the vast landscape. The human presence is contrasted with the natural by juxtaposing the rigid and regular shapes of human intervention (the rectilinear bridge) with the curving irregularity of the mountainous landscape.
","remarks":"as per object file"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"Edo printmakers frequently created sets of images illustrating scenic locations around Japan. Hiroshige made his celebrated series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō in 1833, after traveling this important route and sketching sites along the way. The Tōkaidō, or “Eastern sea route,” was a three-hundred-mile road with fifty- five official stops or stations, connecting the two most important cities of Edo Japan: Kyoto and Edo (present-day Tokyo). Eisen produced a set of Tōkaidō road prints, including the figure of a courtesan in front of Mount Fuji that you see in this group. The most renowned artist of the period, Hokusai produced his well-known print of figures crossing a suspension bridge for a series on provincial bridges, both real and imagined.\n","remarks":"ASIA3_13_WLA Day 1 Cataloguing - Group chat for x1965-45, x1983-35, and 2012-60"}],"media":[{"id":97333,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/INV22918","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Inventory Project"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2012,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 71/72 (2012-13): p. 105-132.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2012,\" Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 71/72 (2012-13): p. 105-132., p. 118","date":2012,"id":2988,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/24416388"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":3444,"citation":"Picturing Place in Japan Saturday, October 20, 2018 - Sunday, February 24, 2019","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2018-10-20","enddate":"2019-02-24","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3444"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: Asia, Japan","code":"Place made","continent":"Asia","subcontinent":null,"country":"Japan","region":null,"state":null,"city":null,"county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"http://www.geonames.org/1861060/japan.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2096423,"term":"travel","aatid":300080094,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2054256,"term":"prints","aatid":300041273,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2033838,"term":"Japanese","aatid":300018519,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2088280,"term":"women","aatid":300025943,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2188503,"term":"Becoming One: Bridges in Natural Landscapes","aatid":null,"termtype":"Collection Theme"},{"id":2125788,"term":"albums","aatid":300026690,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2086968,"term":"bridges (built works)","aatid":300007836,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2158074,"term":"deer","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2033898,"term":"Edo (Japanese period)","aatid":300106643,"termtype":"Period / Style"},{"id":2120146,"term":"mountains","aatid":300008795,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171706,"term":"clouds","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2034112,"term":"Japanese printmaking styles","aatid":300106750,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2051508,"term":"views","aatid":300015424,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2054726,"term":"woodblock prints","aatid":300041405,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2155120,"term":"woodcut (process)","aatid":300053296,"termtype":"Techniques"},{"id":2054328,"term":"oban","aatid":300041290,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2055845,"term":"color","aatid":300056130,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167672,"term":"ink","aatid":300015012,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2043820,"term":"paper","aatid":300014109,"termtype":"Materials"}],"classifications":[{"id":2054256,"classification":"prints"},{"id":2034112,"classification":"japanese printmaking styles"},{"id":2125788,"classification":"albums"},{"id":2054726,"classification":"woodblock prints"}],"cultures":[{"id":13690,"culture":"Japanese","alphasort":"Japanese","begindate":0,"enddate":0,"displayculture":"Japanese","displaydate":null}],"cultureterms":[{"id":2033838,"culture":"Japanese"}],"periods":[{"id":12589,"period":"Edo period","alphasort":"Edo period","begindate":1603,"enddate":1868,"displayperiod":"Edo period, 1603–1868","displaydate":"1603–1868"}],"periodterms":[{"id":2033898,"period":"Edo (Japanese period)"}],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199319,"term":"Asian Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"block","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"26.40"},{"element":"block","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"38.70"},{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"43.49"},{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"58.73"},{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"3.80"},{"element":"Proposed mat","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"40.63"},{"element":"Proposed mat","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"55.87"}],"packages":[{"packageid":193153,"name":"PUAM_Expressing Culture_Asian"},{"packageid":206417,"name":"image_descriptions_top250"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":220938,"name":"web_2000-2022printacquisitions"},{"packageid":214208,"name":"Gallery_13-15(Pavilion4)-Asian"},{"packageid":204035,"name":"Teaching Kit Reproductions 8 1/2 x 11"},{"packageid":196263,"name":"WEB_2021_spring"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/INV22918"],"displaymaker":"Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎, 1760–1849; born and died Tokyo, Japan | Published by Nishimuraya Yohachi 西村屋与八 (Eijudō 永寿堂)","displayculture":"Japanese","displayperiod":"Edo period, 1603–1868","caption":"Japanese, Edo period (1603–1868), Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849; born and died Tokyo, Japan), Published by Nishimuraya Yohachi 西村屋与八 (Eijudō 永寿堂), The Suspension Bridge on the Border of Hida and Etchū Provinces (Hietsu no sakai tsuribashi 飛越の堺つりはし), from the series “Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces” (Shokoku meikyō kiran 諸国名橋奇覧), ca. 1834 [Tenpō 5]. Woodblock print (ōban yoko-e format); ink and color on paper; 26.4 × 38.7 cm (block). Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund and Mary Trumbull Adams Art Fund \r\n (2012-60)","captionhtml":"Japanese, Edo period (1603–1868), Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849; born and died Tokyo, Japan), Published by Nishimuraya Yohachi 西村屋与八 (Eijudō 永寿堂), The Suspension Bridge on the Border of Hida and Etchū Provinces (Hietsu no sakai tsuribashi 飛越の堺つりはし), from the series “Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces” (Shokoku meikyō kiran 諸国名橋奇覧), ca. 1834 [Tenpō 5]. Woodblock print (ōban yoko-e format); ink and color on paper; 26.4 × 38.7 cm (block). Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund and Mary Trumbull Adams Art Fund \r\n (2012-60)","published_date":"2026-02-11 13:16:51.402213","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":false}