Warabi: Ferry Crossing on the Toda River
c. 1835–36 · Woodblock print; ink and colour on paper · National Diet Library, Tokyo
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- Keisai Eisen (1790–1848)
- Year
- c. 1835–36
- Medium
- Woodblock print; ink and colour on paper
- Original size
- approx. 23 × 35 cm (horizontal ōban)
- Collection
- National Diet Library, Tokyo (impression pid 1306263, call no. 寄別2-2-1-5; many other impressions exist)
- Movement
- Ukiyo-e
- Series
- Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō
A flat ferry boat crowded with travellers and a horse crosses the pale blue Toda River, the boatman at the stern leaning hard on his long pole. White cranes fly low over the water, and dark blue bands of cloud stretch across a cream sky above the far bank, where pack horses and figures gather by thatched huts under twisted pines. This is print three of The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō, published by Hōeidō and later Kinjudō, c. 1835–36. Keisai Eisen, who designed it, began the series and Utagawa Hiroshige completed it. Warabi was the second station on the Nakasendō, the inland road from Edo to Kyoto; impressions vary in colour and condition.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
River blue, dark indigo cloud and cream sky with a crowded brown ferry, for a living room, study or hallway at 16×24 in natural wood. It pairs with Kawasaki: The Rokugō Ferry from Hiroshige's Tōkaidō for two river crossings out of Edo.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Ukiyo-e painting
- Era
- 19th century (c. 1835–36)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, hallway or entryway, study or library, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Warabi: Ferry Crossing on the Toda River in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Warabi: Ferry Crossing on the Toda River painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
