Japanese Print "Nihonbashi at Night" by Kobayashi Kiyochika
Artist:Kobayashi Kiyochika
Title:Nihonbashi at Night
Date:1880s
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
Although by 1876 there were gaslights all the way from Ginza to Asakusa, the novelist Tanizaki Junichiro (1886-1956), who was from Nihonbashi, wrote that they were few and far between. Kobayashi Kiyochika was fascinated with gaslight and its transformedation of the nighttime experience. About one-fourth of all his Tokyo views are night scenes, and may, including this one, are remarkable for the dep darkness they convey. Here darkness dominates, relieved only by small points of light from streetlights, lanterns, and illuminated building interiors. The traffic across the bridge is impressive even in the depths of night; the darkness is punctuated by the lanterns of predestrians, horse-buses, and rickshaws. But it is the gas streetlights that are the symbol of the new, and Kiyochika uses their illumination to create silhouttes of the traffic and cast shadows.
