Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

The "Monkey Bridge" is one of the rarest of Hiroshige's masterpieces and is considered to be the finest in the vertical-diptych format. The design is thought to have been completed soon after his journey in 1841 along the Koshukaido, the road from Edo (Tokyo) to Koshu (Kai province) near Lake Suwa on the Kisokaido. Another impression of this image is in the Tokyo National Museum and is a registered Important Art Object.

For other impressions, see Suzuki Juzo, Hiroshige (Tokyo: Nikkei shinbun, 1970), no. 154; Vignier and Inada, Utamaro... Hiroshige-Estampes Japonaises...Et Exposeés au Museé des Arts Décoratifs en Janvier 1912 (Geneva: Minkoff Reprint, 1973), pl. LXXIV, no. 281; Yamaguchi Keizaburo, et al., Hiroshige, Ukiyo-e taikei, vol. 11 (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1974), no. 179; Tokyo National Museum, Tokubetsuten ukiyo-e (Special exhibition of ukiyo-e) (Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum, 1984), pl. 654, registered Important Art Object; Matthi Forrer, The Baur Collection: Japanese Prints, vol. 2 (Geneva: Collections Baur, 1994), pl. G529; Ota Memorial Museum of Art, Utagawa Hiroshige ten: Seitan nihyakushunen kinen (The exhibition of Utagawa Hiroshige: The 200th anniversary of his birth) (Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1996), pl. 121.