37. Kilns and the Hashiba Ferry on the Sumida River 1857

Editor: This is Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Kilns and the Hashiba Ferry on the Sumida River,” a woodblock print from 1857. I’m struck by how industrial it feels, despite being a landscape. What stands out to you? Curator: What's fascinating here is the tension between the depiction of nature and the stark reality of labor. Look at that massive plume of smoke dominating the composition. It signifies industry, specifically the kilns. How does Hiroshige’s choice of the woodblock medium itself—a method of mass production—comment on the scene? Editor: I see what you mean. The kilns, they’re producing something. Does the print give us a sense of what is being made, and how that links into wider society at the time? Curator: Exactly. The kilns were likely producing pottery or bricks for Edo, the growing capital. This image then becomes a document of the urbanization process. What materials do you see, and what labor goes into extracting or transforming them? Editor: Well, there’s the wood for the kilns, clay for whatever they’re firing, and obviously, the work of the people who load and unload the ferry. So much physical work, which we can appreciate in detail because it’s been printed, reproduced, consumed! Curator: Precisely! This is Ukiyo-e, pictures of the floating world – made accessible to all. Does that accessibility change the message for you? Editor: Absolutely! It’s no longer just a scene, but a manufactured product portraying manufacture, showing industry but made industrially. Thanks, I see this in a completely different light now. Curator: Me too. Thinking about the physical making of this art has deepened my understanding of labor practices from the era depicted.