# “America”: Enjoying Hot Air Balloons

**Utagawa Yoshitora** (Japanese, active ca. 1850–80)  
1867  
Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper  
Image: 14 3/4 x 28 3/4 in. (37.5 x 73 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.49.222. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/73512).

## About this work

Hot air balloons float above an imagined American city of grand buildings and flags, while elegantly dressed men and women gather below to watch. Utagawa Yoshitora never travelled abroad, and his views of foreign countries, made in the 1860s as Japan was opening to the West, combined details from imported illustrated papers and books with a good deal of invention. Such triptychs offered a Japanese audience an exciting, if fanciful, window on the wider world.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Utagawa Yoshitora designed this in 1867, aged 22. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
- **Triptych.** Three sheets designed to sit side by side and read as one wide picture.

### [Utagawa Yoshitora](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/utagawa-yoshitora)

Japanese, active ca. 1850–80

## Facts

- Type: Prints
- Culture: Japan
- The artist was 22
- Real size: about 15 × 29 in (38 × 73 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 18 × 24 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Subjects: Buildings, Men, Women, Flags, Hot Air Balloons
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/981.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/981/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/america-enjoying-hot-air-balloons-met-73512).