明治時代、隅田川に懸けられた橋が鉄橋に変わっていく中、木製の橋として唯一残っていた新大橋の情景を対幅に表しました。右幅には、鰻を釣る漁夫の姿を、左幅には、橋の上を行きかう人々と橋の下を行く船とを描きました。右幅の遠景には深川安宅町の火の見櫓も見えます。江戸時代に江戸の各所に設置された火の見櫓も、橋と同様に木製から鉄製へと変わってゆきました。
明治初期の東京の下町に生まれ育った清方は、近代化に伴い、江戸情緒の残る風景が失われていく様子を目の当たりにします。こうした「心のふるさと」の情景を描く作品は、清方芸術の特徴のひとつとなっています。

The View of Shin-Ōhashi (1910)
ink and pale color on paper; pair of hanging scrolls
123.3 x 30.3 cm each

In the Meiji period, when the wooden bridges across the Sumida River were being replaced with iron bridges, Kiyokata painted this view of the Shin-Ōhashi, the only remaining wooden bridge, as a pair of hanging scrolls. The right-hand scroll depicts a fisherman catching eels, while the scroll on the left shows people crossing the bridge and a boat passing underneath it. The fire watchtower at Fukagawa-Atakechō is also visible in the background of the right-hand scroll. As was the case with the bridges, the wooden fire watchtowers, which had been established in various locations during the Edo period, were being replaced with iron ones.
Kiyokata was born and raised in the shitamachi area of Tokyo in the early Meiji period. As the city modernized, he witnessed the loss of the landscapes where the atmosphere of Edo still lingered. Depictions such as this one of the sights of Kiyokata’s “spiritual home” are characteristic of his art.