Mitsumata

歌川国芳 『東都名所』「三つ股の圖」

Many of the urban scenes portrayed by nineteenth-century printmakers focus on ordinary labor. In this scene from a series of prints depicting famous places in the "Eastern Capital" (Edo, present-day Tokyo), two carpenters use a fire to scorch the wooden hull of a fishing boat. The scorching is a fumigation treatment meant to safeguard the boat’s timbers from decay and insect infestations. Carefully shaded brown smoke wafting across the sky evokes the effect of vapor dispersed by a breeze. The setting for this scene, Mitsumata, is a confluence of the Sumida River and one of its tributaries. Past Eitai Bridge, at the right, are the masts of boats at the Tsukadajima fishing port in Edo Bay. The small scale of the bridge, houses, and warehouses lining the opposite shore conveys a sense of the river’s breadth.