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Full Triptych
Famous Sites of Tokyo: Firemen of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Performing on Ladders in Yayosu
Full Triptych

Famous Sites of Tokyo: Firemen of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Performing on Ladders in Yayosu

Artist (Japanese, 1843 – 1894)
Publisher
Date1876
PeriodMeiji period (1868–1912)
MediumTriptych of woodblock prints (nishiki-e); ink and colors on paper.
DimensionsOverall (oban tate-e): 14 3/4 × 29 1/8 in. (37.5 × 74 cm)
Sheet (Left): 14 3/4 × 9 13/16 in. (37.5 × 25 cm)
Sheet (center): 14 3/4 × 9 13/16 in. (37.5 × 25 cm)
Sheet (right): 14 3/4 × 9 13/16 in. (37.5 × 25 cm)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineMuseum purchase through the David J. Patten Asian Art Fund, 2019
Object numberSN11669
Performances by firefighters were a popular form of acrobatic entertainment in early modern Japan. Fires were an endemic hazard of Edo (later Tokyo) and other metropolitan centers, within which most buildings were constructed of wood, straw, paper, and other highly flammable materials. Firemen scaled tall bamboo ladders to spot fires in the city and climb onto buildings. They developed tricks to show off their agility, daring, and discipline. Their ladder tricks, called hashigonori, are related to acts performed by professional acrobats, such as that represented in the recently acquire print Hayatake Torakichi from Osaka, by Utagawa Kunisada III (SN11648). This triptych represents scenes from the 1876 Dezomeshiki festival, an annual event thought to have been first held during the New Year of 1659 in the grounds of Tōshōgu shrine in Ueno, in present-day Tokyo, at which the firemen of Yayosu district displayed their tricks. The Yayosu brigades were established by the shogun in the early 17th century to protect Edo Castle (now Tokyo Castle) and other government buildings. The castle, visible in the right, and Mt Fuji, rising in the back left –– twin symbols of the power and sanctity of the empire, seem to watch over the festivities. The print was designed by Hiroshige III (aka Andō Tokubei), a successor of the famous landscape artist Hiroshige I, who was himself born into a Yayosu fire brigade family. Hiroshige III continued to create landscape prints, but built upon his master’s legacy by documenting the rapid transformation of Japan in the late 19th century as it modernized. His prints, including this triptych, depict Japan’s new Western-style buildings, railways, telegraph lines, and the new fashions adopted by the populace. In 1875, the year before this print was issued, the fire brigade was integrated into the new police force; as such, this print also represents the modernization of the Japanese government’s various agencies and functions.
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Collections
Actors Kataoka Gadō III as Nagoya Sanza, Nakamura Fukusuke IV as Okuni, Iwai Matsunosuke IV as Katsuragi, and Nakamura Tsuruzō II as the landlord in the play Nuretsubame hiyoku no inazuma at the Ichimura Theater, Tokyo
Actors Kataoka Gadō III as Nagoya Sanza, Nakamura Fukusuke IV as Okuni, Iwai Matsunosuke IV as Katsuragi, and Nakamura Tsuruzō II as the landlord in the play Nuretsubame hiyoku no inazuma at the Ichimura Theater, Tokyo
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Actors Tsuketaka Takasuke as Yagi Toyonaga, Sawamura Tanosuke as Morimurasaki, Nakamura Tokizō as Numata Bunpei, and Iwai Matsunosuke as the apprentice prostitute Oyone in the play Seishisuki hiyoku no shingata at the Ichimura Theater, Tokyo
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1881
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New Photgraphy by Chris lunardi
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Utagawa Kunimasa IV
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The Ōi River between Suruga and Tōtōmi Provinces, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
The Ōi River between Suruga and Tōtōmi Provinces, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
1858
Seven-Mile Beach in Sagami Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Seven-Mile Beach in Sagami Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
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The Sea off Satta in Suruga Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
The Sea off Satta in Suruga Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
1858
The Suruga District in Edo, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
The Suruga District in Edo, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
1858
Pine Beach at Miho in Suruga Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Pine Beach at Miho in Suruga Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
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Fuji Seen from the Left on the Tōkaidō Road, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Fuji Seen from the Left on the Tōkaidō Road, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Utagawa Hiroshige
1858
Image from Gallery for online catalog
Landing and Advance to Weihaiwei
Kobayashi Kiyochika
1895
Image from Gallery
Our Field Artillery Attacks the Enemy Camp at Jiuliancheng
Kobayashi Kiyochika
1894
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