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A Peasant Crossing a Bridge, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poems

A color woodblock print with a large blue lake in the midground and a man crossing a bridge over a stream in the foreground, green grasses a plants throughout
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A color woodblock print with a large blue lake in the midground and a man crossing a bridge over a stream in the foreground, green grasses a plants throughout

Date:

late 1830s

Artist:

Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾 北斎
Japanese, 1760-1849

About this artwork

An old peasant returns from gathering the two bundles of horsetail rushes, which hang from a pole across his shoulder. Of the various poems about gathering rushes in the old anthologies, it is thought that Hokusai had in mind this poem from a 1303 collection:

When I was cutting horsetails
The autumn moon appeared
Shining through the trees
On Mount Sonahara.
(Translated by Matthi Forrer)

In this series of ten prints, the relevant poem was not included in the design. Instead, the artist challenged the Edo audience’s love of puzzles. Viewers enjoyed determining the source of a poem and its author.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Asia

Artist

Katsushika Hokusai

Title

A Peasant Crossing a Bridge, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poems

Place

Japan (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1835–1839

Medium

Color woodblock print; nagaban

Dimensions

50 × 23.2 cm (19 11/16 × 9 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Nickerson

Reference Number

1900.674

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/57271/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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