Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide at Susaki, from Famous Places in Edo

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Susaki, a strip of land along Edo (now Tokyo) Bay, was known for excellent shellfish harvests during low tide in the spring. Utagawa Hiroshige designed this print so that the viewer seems to be floating in the bay on board a ship, whose mast and rigging span the left foreground. Instead of depicting the lives of wealthy elites, this landscape focuses on the working-class people wading into shallow water to fill their baskets with shellfish. Susaki Shrine is shown amid pine trees on the right, while the leisure class enjoying the sea breezes from a pavilion are reduced to small figures in the background.

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