Eight Views of Kanazawa at Night (1857): Art, History and Details

Eight Views of Kanazawa at Night (1857) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Late in his career, Hiroshige explored the poetic theme of setsugekka, “snow, moon, and flowers,” in a set of three triptychs. This panoramic scene shows the autumn moon over Kanazawa, near Tokyo. Hiroshige’s contemporaries would have recognized the coastline dotted with villages, fishing boats, and the distinctive double-arched bridge at the bottom right.

Object facts

• Title: Eight Views of Kanazawa at Night
• Date: 1857
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Triptych of color woodblock prints
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.9 x 25.4 cm (14 1/8 x 10 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1924.967

A detail from the museum

The red cartouche on the right gives the title of the print, while the artist’s signature and red seal are on the far left.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss for the Dudley P. Allen Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.