Meguro Drum Bridge and Sunset Hill

The artwork

Under thickly falling snow, a few travellers cross an arched stone bridge, bent beneath their umbrellas. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The white of the snow, the blue-grey of the sky and the blue of the river.
• A quiet winter landscape that brings calm to a sitting room or a bedroom.
• A gift for anyone who loves snow and the atmosphere of Japan.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, published it in 1857 in the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, the series devoted to the city now called Tokyo. The bridge over the Meguro River was called the «drum bridge» because of its rounded shape, which recalled a drum. It was a curiosity: arched bridges were rare in Edo, and stone ones even rarer, because in a city of earthquakes stone offered no advantage. Tradition says it was designed around 1740 by a wandering monk.

Beyond the bridge rises Sunset Hill, once famous for its red autumn maples. Hiroshige instead shows it in winter, covered in snow, and looks at it from an angle: the landscape becomes lonelier and quieter. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

In a sitting room or a bedroom it brings the stillness of falling snow. A delicate gift for anyone who loves Japan.

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