Utagawa Hiroshige
1855
The scenery of people fishing at the marshy areas that extended at the foot of Mt. Fuji is depicted. This place is called “Fuji-no-numa (the marsh of Mt. Fuji)” or “Ukishima-ga-hara (the field of floating island)”. With the water fowls that fly across the screen, the gradation bands of blue that extend straight across the sky at the upper edge and the marsh at the lower edge give perspective to the picture.
The series, “Views of Famous Places of Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou” was produced in 1855, when Hiroshige was 59 years old, and this is his last Toukaidou series. This series is also called “The Toukaidou in Vertical Pictures” since it is produced as the series of vertical pictures. It is considered the vertical composition is not suitable for landscape pictures since it is difficult to find the good balance in the space. However Hiroshige, the master of landscape pictures used this composition in a distinctive way, created the masterpiece series.