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Overview
An ukiyo-e artist shrouded in mystery, Utagawa Hirokage (active 1855-65) was a student of the great Utagawa Hiroshige but never rose to the same level of prominence as his master. What Hirokage did accomplish, however, was making the Edoites (Tokyo people) of his time laugh: woodblock print series such as Comical Views of Famous Places in Edo and Great Battle of the Vegetables and the Fish depicted city folk goofing around in a way reminiscent of silent-era slapstick comedies of half a century later.
Strong Wind on Shinhashi Bridge, from the Comical Views series is typical of Hirokage's slapstick humour; viewers would have delighted in the locals' ineffectual responses to the gusts that would have thrown them - and their possessions - into disarray. This print is a particularly good choice for a Wellington collection! On looking closely, however, viewers might have found at more nuanced pleasure as they noticed that Hirokage's composition was a pastiche of one of Hiroshige's famous views of Edo, and the flying objects have in turn been purloined from compositions by Hokusai. Although Hirokage may not be the most original of artists, and the rendition of details here seems clumsy, works like these offer today's viewers more immediate gratification than earlier Edo constructions ever allowed. In turn, viewers of the period could surely see themselves in any of these works, appreciate the social situations described in each, and recognise the social crush of the busiest and most populous city in Japan.
Sources:
David Bell and Mark Stocker 'Rising sun at Te Papa: the Heriot collection of Japanese art', Tuhinga, 29 (2018), https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/document/10608
'Comical Edo People by Utagawa Hirokage', Time Out Tokyo, 9 December 2016, https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/art/comical-edo-people-by-utagawa-hirokage
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2019