Artist:Utagawa Hiroshige
Medium: Woodblock print
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:2nd month of 1856
Dimensions: Sheet: 14 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. (36 x 23.5 cm) Image: 13 3/8 x 8 3/4 in. (34 x 22.2 cm)
Collections:
Exhibitions:
Accession Number: 30.1478.108
Image: 30.1478.108_PS20.jpg,
Catalogue Description: This print is one of the earliest in this series at Shibaura, the Shiba coast. At right is the edge of Hama Palace, a shogunal villa that occupied sixty-one acres of reclaimed land extending into Edo Bay. The villa became the Hama Detached Palace of the imperial household after the Meiji Restoration and in 1937 was turned over to the city of Tokyo, which now operates it as Hama Detached Palace Imperial Gift Park. At left are the gray forms of the Odaiba (see prints 81 and 83 of the series). The faces of the gulls in the foreground are particularly appealing, appearing almost human. Here Hiroshige renders them in their winter colors; they are known as "black-headed gulls" in their summer plumage. This is one of three prints in the series that bear the seal of the carver "Hori-sen," see prints 28 and 83 for the others.