Shinagawa: Sunrise - Utagawa Hiroshige

A classic Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige depicting the first station of the Tōkaidō road at sunrise. It features sailing boats in Edo Bay and the bustling inns of the Shinagawa post town.

Shinagawa was the first rest station on the Tōkaidō road, the coastal route connecting Edo to Kyoto. This woodblock print belongs to the Hoeidō edition, the series that established Hiroshige as a master of the genre. The composition depicts the station at dawn. Large sailing vessels, known as bezaisen, anchor in the shallow waters of Edo Bay. Their white sails catch the early light against a pale sky. The foreground shows the activity of the post town. Travellers and porters move along the narrow strip of land between the water and the buildings. On the right, a row of inns and teahouses lines the road. These establishments provided lodging and meals for those departing the capital. Hiroshige uses a high vantage point to look down upon the scene, a common technique in Japanese printmaking. The use of colour is characteristic of the period. A deep blue band at the top of the sky and in the water uses the bokashi technique, a method of hand-applying pigment to the woodblock to create a gradient. This adds a sense of atmosphere to the coastal scene. The figures are rendered with simple, expressive lines, capturing the movement of daily life. This print provides a record of the topography and social customs of nineteenth-century Japan before the rapid modernisation of the Meiji era.