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Spatial Composition and Systems of Proportion in Utagawa Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

류지영

서울예술대학교

Published: December 2025 · No. 328 · pp. 183-216

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31065/kjah.328.202512.007

Abstract

This study aims to empirically elucidate the formal structure and visual system of late Edomperiod ukiyo-e landscape prints through a geometric analysis of the spatial composition and proportional systems in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–1858) by Utagawa Hiroshige. While previous scholarship has largely emphasized Hiroshige’s lyricism and emotive expression, this paper reinterprets proportion as a fundamental principle of landscape construction by focusing on the concept of warikata no kokoroe ( ᷡፖ΀ᚄᄌ, principles of division) presented in Ehon Tebikigusa (1849). The analysis reveals that One Hundred Famous Views of Edo employs proportional schemes based on bipartite, tripartite, quadripartite, quintipartite, and  m1 divisions, applied independently or in combination. Through these proportional structures, visual stability and tension, openness and density, the movement of the viewer’s gaze, and spatial depth are organically regulated. These formal characteristics suggest that the compositional experiments in ukiyo-e landscape prints that developed after Hokusai were further systematized and diversified in Hiroshige’s work, particularly at the level of proportion and compositional logic. Hiroshige’s use of proportion also serves to mitigate the artificiality that can arise from close-foreground compositions and the incorporation of Western linear perspective, instead harmonizing the overall spatial order of the picture plane to achieve visual balance and rhythmic coherence. Furthermore, by reconfiguring conventional illustrated images of famous places into sensorial and experiential spaces, Hiroshige formally embodies shifts in late Edo visual culture, reorganizing both the meaning of place and the viewer’s mode of perception.
Keywords: 우키요에 풍경화(Ukiyo-e FūkeigaUkiyo-e Landscape Prints)우타가와 히로시게(Utagawa Hiroshige)명소에도백경(Meisho Edo HyakkeiOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo)비례 체계와 화면 분할(Proportional Systems and Pictorial Division)근상형 구도(Kinshō-gata CompositionNear–far Composition)에도 후기 시각문화(Late Edo Visual Culture)