# Boating Party on the Sumida River

**Torii Kiyonaga** (Japanese, 1752–1815)  
1789  
Triptych of color woodblock prints  
Overall: 35.6 x 23.8 cm (14 x 9 3/8 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956.751. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1956.751).

## About this work

Torii Kiyonaga designed this in 1789, aged 37. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### 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.

### [Torii Kiyonaga](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/torii-kiyonaga)

Japanese, 1752–1815

Kiyonaga trained with Torii Kiyomitsu and in 1785 became head of the Torii line, the hereditary designers of kabuki theatre signboards and posters. He is best known for the 1780s, when his tall, statuesque women, set in realistic outdoor scenes and often spread across diptychs and triptychs, defined the ideal of beauty in Edo. In the 1790s he largely turned from fashionable subjects to his duties for the theatre.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- The artist was 37
- Real size: about 14 × 9½ in (36 × 24 cm). The 11 × 14 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/616.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/616/1920.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
- 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/boating-party-on-the-sumida-river-cma-134277).