Net Fishing at Night on the Sumida River
1800
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1800
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Net Fishing at Night on the Sumida River is a 1800 by Kitagawa Utamaro, a Romanticism work, depicting Fishing, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This print shows three scenes side by side. On the left, a party boat glows with lanterns. A man pours sake into small lacquer dishes for two women. In the middle, a fisherman struggles with a large net. His boat crosses paths with the party boat. On the right, another man leans on the roof, watching the fisherman. Utamaro often captured everyday moments like this. He focused on small gestures and expressions. The night scene feels alive with flickering light and movement. You can almost hear the water and laughter. Look up Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).
In this triptych (a composition of three prints), a nighttime drinking party on a pleasure boat is interrupted by an encounter with a fishing boat on the Sumida River in Edo (now Tokyo). A young man in a bold, checked robe distributes lacquer dishes of sake to his female companions, while another man sits on the boat’s roof, peering at the fisherman’s net. The fisherman struggles to control the net as a woman in the party boat offers her sake dish, her robe pulled open at the neck to enjoy the evening cool.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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