# Net Fishing at Night on the Sumida River

**Kitagawa Utamaro** (Japanese, c.1753–1806)  
c. 1800  
Triptych of color woodblock prints  
Overall: 38.6 x 25.4 cm (15 3/16 x 10 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.1116. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1116).

## About this work

In this triptych (a composition of three prints), a nighttime drinking party on a pleasure boat is interrupted by an encounter with a fishing boat on the Sumida River in Edo (now Tokyo). A young man in a bold, checked robe distributes lacquer dishes of sake to his female companions, while another man sits on the boat’s roof, peering at the fisherman’s net. The fisherman struggles to control the net as a woman in the party boat offers her sake dish, her robe pulled open at the neck to enjoy the evening cool.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Kitagawa Utamaro designed this in about 1800, aged about 42. 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.

### [Kitagawa Utamaro](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/kitagawa-utamaro)

Japanese, c.1753–1806

Utamaro trained with the painter Toriyama Sekien and rose to fame in the 1790s with the support of the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō. He is best known for his half-length portraits of women, the ōkubi-e or “large head” pictures, which give close attention to expression, gesture and the texture of hair and fabric. He also produced finely observed books of insects, shells and birds. In 1804 he was punished by the authorities for designs depicting the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- The artist was about 42
- Real size: about 15 × 10 in (39 × 25 cm). The 12 × 16 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/468.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/468/1920.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/net-fishing-at-night-on-the-sumida-river-cma-95356).