Primary sourcePainting

Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in the Provinces

Katsushika Hokusai

A series of woodblock prints by Hokusai showing both real and legendary bridges across Japan.

A series by Hokusai mixing real and legendary bridges, extending his topographical print work of the 1830s.

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Woodblock print of a wooden bridge with travelers, a horse carrying bundled cargo, and a porter with a large basket, over a river with a sandy shore, houses, and a distant mountain. Title cartouche at upper right. — Katsushika Hokusai, from Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in the Provinces.

About this source

What it is

This is a series of woodblock prints by Hokusai, part of his topographical print work. One print shows a wooden bridge crowded with travelers, a horse loaded with cargo and a porter carrying a large basket, set against a river, houses and a distant mountain.

Why it matters

The series mixes real bridges with legendary ones, extending the kind of landscape print work Hokusai had been producing through the 1830s, a period when travel and pilgrimage sites were popular subjects in Japanese prints.

Look closer

What details in the print tell you this is a busy, well-used crossing point?
Why might an artist mix real and legendary bridges in the same series?
What does the activity shown on the bridge tell us about everyday travel and trade in this period?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hokusai on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Man with Filarial Elephantiasis

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Woodcut print in ink on paper showing a scene at a wooden outhouse. A samurai with two swords peers out from a window of the latrine building. Outside, a bald man carries a large wooden bucket on a pole, and another man crouches in the foreground. Japanese text and a signature appear in the margins.

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Samurai Visiting a Latrine

Hokusai Katsushika · 1834

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Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830-1832

Woodblock print of a red-and-yellow rowing boat on a dark blue pond with lotus leaves. Several women in red and pink robes sit and kneel in the boat, one at the stern holding a long pole, others reaching toward the water. A green bank with bushes is at left, and a poem cartouche is at upper right.

Painting

Primary source

Women in a Rowing Boat on a Lotus Pond

Hokusai Katsushika

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