Comment -The scene is located at the 'Willow Well outside Sakurada Gate'. Sakurada Gate is part of the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo. The above woodblock shows a toppled down Edo kite ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧")  with a Tengu picture, entangled in a Willow tree. The malicious grinning tengu's face is reflected in the water surface of the "Willow Well outside Sakurada Gate". While ladling out water, a customer gets frightened by the tengu's malicious grinning face, is tumbling, and falling down. His companions seem to laugh at him.

The scene is parodizing Hiroshige's  "Hibiya and-Soto Sakurada from Yamashita-cho", with about the same view of the great inner moat of Edo Castle.

Series - The Series "Comical Views of Famous Places in Edo" has about 46 sheets, some of them with a parody of HIROSHIGE's well known woodblocks. Number "44" (above), number "10", and number "29" contain kite scenes. Hirokage was a student of Hiroshige. Around 1860 he produced a series, parodying Hiroshige's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." These comic views illustrate humorous mishaps and accidents, such as workmen falling off scaffolding and ending up covered in plaster, or a man tripping and upsetting noodles all over the head of his friend. Other images poke fun at traditions, with a badger parading as shogun or kite flying using a daimyo's cap as a weight on the kite string. These comic scenes create a fun twist on the usual famous views of Edo, offering a humorous and entertaining look at daily life.


Artist - see Biography


Signature -  lower right ("Hirokage ga" / "広景画");


Publisher - Tsujioka-ya Bunsuke (辻岡屋文助), Kinshōdō Publisher's (金松堂)



Image Size - 22.2 x 34.3 cm (8 3/4" x 13 1/2") + margins as shown


Condition - single sheet; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical ôban; Tate-e (portrait)