Ryogoku Bridge and the Great Riverbank

On the near embankment, teahouses and show tents with their roofs side by side continue, and crowds come and go along the road below. Above them Ryogoku Bridge spans from lower left to upper right, and the bridge too is packed with people. Roofed pleasure boats, cargo boats, and sailboats float on the river, and a row of houses and trees continues on the far shore. Signboards and banners hang from the eaves of the teahouses.

The yellow of the teahouse roofs and bridge planks is vividly contrasted with the blue of the river. The bridge crossing the picture diagonally links the near embankment with the far shore, and the crowds are expressed through fine detail.

The area at the western end of Ryogoku Bridge was called Ryogoku Hirokoji; as a firebreak cleared as open ground, it filled with teahouses and show tents and was Edo's greatest amusement quarter. In summer the opening-of-the-river fireworks were set off, drawing large crowds of spectators. This print, issued the year after the earthquake, can also be read as showing an Edo whose entertainment district had regained its bustle.

This print belongs to the summer section, and its censor's seal dates it to the eighth month of Ansei 3 (1856). Ryogoku is also depicted in "Fireworks at Ryogoku" in the autumn section, and the two can be viewed as a pair, the fireworks in the night sky and this view of the daytime amusement quarter.