Pleasure Boat on the Sumida River
1804
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
1804
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Pleasure Boat on the Sumida River is a 1804 unspecified by Teisai Hokuba, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows a boat on the Sumida River. It's a scene from everyday life in Japan. The boat has people serving food and drinks, while others chat or fish. The details in this painting reveal a lot about life in the Edo period, like how people traveled and socialized. You can learn more about this time and place by looking up the subject: japan, edo period (1615–1868).
After a major fire in Edo (now Tokyo), the Yoshiwara licensed brothel district was relocated to an area accessed via boat along the Sumida River, giving rise to many compositions depicting travel there. Here, attendants with checkered robes serve refreshment to a client. A figure at the fore of the boat tends to the kitchen. A courtesan at the aft, or rear, surveys the river scene. Acquaintances converse in modest commuter boats, and fishers put in to a tiny island. The boat is near the entrance to the San’ya Canal, where pleasure-seekers would disembark.
Read the full account in the museum source.
