Suidō Bridge and Surugadai

The artwork

A huge cloth carp flies in the wind above the roofs of the city, and in the distance, small and white, Mount Fuji appears. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The dark carp with its large scales, the green hills and the blue river, with Fuji in the background.
• A cheerful, surprising image that gives character to a child's room or a living room.
• A gift for a new baby or for anyone who loves 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 we now call Tokyo. It is the fifth day of the fifth month, the Boys' Festival: families raised cloth carp on poles, because a Chinese legend tells of a fish so strong that it swam up a waterfall, and the carp was a wish to grow up strong and brave. Below lies Surugadai, the district where the samurai lived, and on the right Suidō Bridge crosses the river.

Carp were the banners of merchants and craftsmen, who were not allowed to fly the military standards of the samurai. Hiroshige puts one in the foreground, enormous, right above the warriors' quarter: almost a smile. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

In a child's room or a living room it is a wish for strength and courage. A gift full of meaning for a new baby.

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