Utagawa Hiroshige
1830-44

A famous bridge in the eastern part of Kōshū Province is lit by the moon, and the Katsura River flows vigorously through the valley beneath it. The use of a vertically long rectangle for the print enables a view of the background landscape with a deep, dynamic perspective that seems like a peek into the space between the bridge and the valley. Hiroshige was reportedly inspired by a trip he took to the capital of Kōshū Province for the purpose of producing a decorative painted curtain in 1841 at the request of a party there. No. XX and No. XY were his first works of the hanging scroll type made by joining two vertically long rectangular sheets of the ōban large size. According to a document recording sketchbooks from this trip, he sketched Saru Bridge on April 4th.