1843
ink
paper
From the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dominant colour
江戸名所 外桜田弁慶堀|Soto Sakurada Benkei Bori is a 1843 ink by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Romanticism work, held at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This print shows a quiet street beside a wide, green moat. On one side, a fence runs along the water’s edge, and a few people walk or stand near it. Across the moat, buildings with tiled roofs and wooden gates line the path. Trees—dark and tall—stand behind the buildings, while the sky glows pink and orange at dusk. The moat looks like a defensive ditch, but here it’s calm, almost like a park feature. The text along the top and sides is Japanese, likely naming the place. Next, look up moat to see how these were used in real castles.
Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重) or Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重), born Andō Tokutarō (安藤 徳太郎; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
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