Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa

The upper half of the picture is crossed by the great arc of an arched bridge. Many passersby line the bridge, boats float on the river, and a man dangles a fishing line from the bank at lower right. Fuji is drawn small beyond the piers, at the point where the prow of the foreground boat is directed. Though small, the white snowy summit is clearly distinguishable.

The houses and stone embankments on both banks converge into the distance by Western linear perspective (a method of drawing in which things grow smaller toward a single point as they recede). The idea of seeing Fuji from under a bridge is also found in Kawamura Minsetsu's "Hyaku Fuji" (1767). Katsushika Hokusai added Western-style depth to it. Hokusai also tried Western-style prints emphasizing perspective during the Bunka era (1804-18).

Mannen Bridge stood at the point where the east-west Onagi River joins the north-south Sumida River. The Onagi River is a canal linking the Naka River and the Sumida River, and it was a route for boats entering and leaving Edo. Across the Sumida can be seen Hamacho, lined with daimyo residences. Hokusai himself lived near this bridge around 1835 (Tenpo 6).