Haneda Ferry and Benten Shrine

The artwork

We are sitting in the boat: right in front of us pass the leg and strong hands of the boatman, and beyond the oar the bay opens up, with a small shrine among the trees. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The blue of the sea, the green of the trees and the pink of the sky on the horizon.
• A daring composition, which brings movement to a study or a living room.
• A gift for anyone who loves the sea, travel and Japan.

It belongs to the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the series that Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, published between 1856 and 1858 to portray the city we now call Tokyo. Haneda was a village on the bay, south of the city; today its name is that of one of Tokyo's two airports.

Hiroshige puts us in the place of a passenger on the ferry, and he shows it with a parasol peeping in at the lower right. The boat moves with a single long oar at the stern, which the boatman twists back and forth on a pivot; a rope balances its weight. In the distance, on the spit of land, stands the shrine of Benten, goddess of water, music and letters, and a lighthouse warns boats of the point that juts into the sea. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

In a study or a living room it brings the air of the sea. A gift for anyone who loves travelling.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass