Utagawa Hiroshige: Haneda ferry and Benten Shrine 1858
Many attacked this woodprint of Hiroshige because of the hairy limbs he painted as the focal point. I do not understand why. To me, the hairy limbs are the reason I appreciate this print.
The title reveals where the scene is set: at Benten’s shrine, who is the goddess of the arts, water, good fortune, wisdom and many more in Japanese mythology. But the shrine is only a dark smear under the tree on the left side of the picture. We see some boats and a lighthouse, the red streak of the sunset and the water, but they are only the background. The hairy limbs steal the show.
The passenger of the ferry, most likely Hiroshige himself, is shown through a very small part of his parasol on the right bottom. So the point of view is from where he is sitting, a low position where he can only see the ferryman’s legs and arms that happen to be hairy. And perhaps the trip was long from the village of Haneda to the shrine and the hairy limbs left a deep mark in Hiroshige.
Being a sensitive and artistic person, Hiroshige surely thought of the ferryman’s hard job; how he propelled the scull from the morning to the night every day. It must have been a very trying work. Hiroshige saw it with his own eyes. He saw the man’s thin, tight legs holding the rope while controlling the whole boat full blast. So as I see it, this print is a tribute to a man who works hard, a no name man without a face but with notable hairy arms and legs that honorably sail into the history of art.
