Japanese Print Inspired by the clean and timeless aesthetic of Japan - Asakusa Rice Terrace and Hiroshige's Torinomachi Festival

"Asakusa Rice Field and Torinomachi Festival" (original title: 浅草田甫酉の町詣) is a woodblock print by the Japanese painter and illustrator Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) produced in November 1857.

In this print, the landscape is revealed through a bedroom window, forming a grid that dominates the background. The perspective is thus shaped by this foreground, probably located in an establishment in the Yoshiwara district, shortly after a client has left. A towel and a bowl of water rest on the windowsill, while an onkotogami ("paper for the honorable act") protrudes from the lower left, lying on the ground. Some kumate kanzashi (bear paw hairpins) are probably offered by the client to the courtesan. This motif symbolically evokes the festival announced in the title, which takes place on "rooster day" of the eleventh month and where it is traditional to offer bear paw hairpins, a symbol of good luck. In the center of the background, the festival procession moves towards the temple of Chōkoku-ji. Further away, Mount Fuji rises with its conical silhouette, symmetrically divided in two by a window bar. One of the most remarkable elements of this image is the cat observing the landscape through the window, symbolizing the courtesan. This plate is made using the kimedashi (embossing) technique, pressing a plate onto the paper to imprint the lines and contours. This work, admired in the West, was used to illustrate an article by William Anderson on Hiroshige in the magazine Artistic Japan.