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Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa District, no. 51 from the series One-hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo

Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa District, no. 51 from the series One-hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo

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Utagawa Hiroshige

This print refers to an Edo custom in which vendors at Mannen Bridge sold turtles, carp, and eels to buyers who could then perform a good deed by setting the animals free. Hiroshige’s composition portrays a turtle viewing the confluence of the Onagi and Sumida rivers and Mount Fuji while tethered to the bridge’s railing. The artist may have been suggesting a symbolic connection between the sacred ancient mountain, the turtle as a symbol of longevity, and the name Mannen, which means “ten thousand years.”
Artist
Utagawa Hiroshige
(Japanese, 1797 - 1858)
Title
Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa District, no. 51 from the series One-hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo
Date
11/1857
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
341 x 228 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.1631
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Ando Hiroshige: 100 Famous Views of Edo." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1982. p. 29, cat. no. 51
  • Marks, Andreas. "Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: The Definitive Collector's Edition." Tuttle Publishing, 2024. pp. 288-289, no. 56.1
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 130

  • Chōnin: Japanese Art from the Elvehjem Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 9/1/2001–11/11/2001
  • Hiroshige: 100 Famous Views of Edo: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 4/18/1982–5/23/1982

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