Kaiunbashi Bridge and First National Bank in the Snow 

The Kaiunbashi Bridge cuts across the image from left to right. It was renamed in 1868 to mark the beginning of the Meiji Era and rebuilt in stone in 1875. Beyond it, the green-colored building standing out against the white snow is Japan’s first bank, the Daiichi Ginko (First National Bank), which opened in 1873. With a copper façade providing its unique hue, the wooden-framed brick building combines Japanese and Western elements. It is five stories high and has a tiled roof, castle-style tower, and veranda. Walking towards these two unmistakable symbols of the new, modern era is a woman wearing a traditional kimono. The composition cleverly expresses an age when the new intersected with the old.
The names “Ginza” and “Kishida,” which are legible on the woman’s oilpaper umbrella, likely relate to Rakuzendo, a pharmacy run by the businessman Kishida Ginko (incidentally, the father of artist Kishida Ryusei) that was located in the Tokyo district of Ginza. Considering Kishida’s first name, Ginko, and the Japanese word for bank (ginko) sound the same, it seems likely that the Meiji Era ukiyo-e artist Kobayashi Kiyochika has subtly introduced some sophisticated Edo Period-style wordplay into his picture.
(SAKAMOTO Kyoko)