Snapshots of the Past

[Japanese drawing] – Historic Reproduction

[Japanese drawing], 1750 — historic drawing
[Japanese drawing], 1750. Historic drawing from the Japanese Prints collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Few images capture their era like this historic drawing of [Japanese drawing]. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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[Japanese drawing]

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What sets this drawing apart is its pairing of a drawbridge with foreign visitors, a subject that points to Tokyo in the decades after Japan opened its ports to Western trade in the 1850s. The catalog places the scene in Tokyo between 1850 and 1900, a span that ended with the Meiji era and its rapid changes to the city. The record credits Isoda Koryūsai, an artist active in the late eighteenth century, but its 1750 date does not match that period, so the attribution and timing are worth checking against the source. Drawbridges were familiar features of Edo's moats and castle approaches, and images of them often carry a sense of passage between the old city and the new.

Created / published1750
CreatorIsoda Koryūsai fl. 1764-1788 artist.
Medium1 drawing.
NotesForms part of: Japanese prints and drawings (Library of Congress). Forms part of the David Murray Collection.
SubjectsDrawbridges--Japan--Tokyo--1850-1900. Foreign visitors--Japan--Tokyo--1850-1900.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Japanese Fine Prints
Original scan3,702 × 5,418 px · prints to 12 × 18 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-JFP-227477

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