Japanese Woodblock Print, original 8/1858, this Showa era from recarved woodblocks

SIZE IN INCHES: yatsugiri-ban approx. 4 x 5.8 inches

COMMENTS: Number 107 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

THIS DRAMATIC DESIGN has consistently been one of the most favored of the entire series, conventionally ranked with the rain at Ohashi and the Foxfires at Oji as one of the best three. Apart from the novel and daring conception, the content is universal in its appeal, much like the rain at Ohashi. Even those who have never seen a golden eagle can at least relate to the image, since it is a bird widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and has served as an icon of power and authority in many cultures.

The particular appeal of the design lies in the contrast of the powerful embracing form of the eagle as it prepares to dive for prey and the desolate waste of the wintry marshes below, extending into the distance to the familiar snow capped form of Mount Tsukuba. As in other views with no figures, the human presence is still felt -- in the roofs huddled to the left, in the poles of the lumber yards beyond, and above all in the lone wooden bucket floating at the edge of the bay, surrounded by the dots of water birds on whom the eagle seems to have its eye.

The barren landscape depicted here certainly does not qualify as a famous place, but the Fukagawa Susake of the title was very well known. It was a spit of land along Edo Bay that had a popular Benten shrine at the tip, and offered excellent shellfish gathering at low tide in the spring. Hiroshige had depicted Fukagawa Susaki often before in his views of Edo -- exactly thirty eight times by the count of art historians.

Fine, no flaws