Abstract

Edo doro-e is defined as a group of landscape paintings which were produced in the late Tokugawa period using Western linear perspective and pigments called doro-enogu, especially the newly imported Prussian blue. The object of representation was mainly various famous places of Edo, especially feudal lords' residences. The aim of this paper is to analyze the function of doro-e and locate it as a form of visual culture in the social context of the period. Through the iconographical and formal comparison with topographical representation of ukiyo-e landscape prints by Utagawa Hiroshige, the characteristics of doro-e can be defined as images that macroscopically portay the city's eternal and physical aspects with a rational gaze. Based on this definition, the function of doro-e is understood as the representation of the city of Edo as the capital of warriors, an image of the city in the imagination of lower-status warriors who came to Edo through the system of alternate attendance of feudal lords