Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival

In the foreground is a room in a Yoshiwara brothel, where a white cat sits on the windowsill beneath a lattice window and looks outside. Beyond the window the Asakusa rice fields spread out, and in the distance a line of people heads for the Tori-no-Machi festival. A white Mt. Fuji can be seen beyond the horizon, and a line of geese crosses the sky.

A black frame and lattice divide the picture, and beyond them extends a sky of evening rose and indigo. From the rake-shaped hairpin and the paper tissues lying on the floor, the room is said to be read as that of a courtesan who has just seen off a customer.

The Tori-no-Machi was a festival held on the Day of the Rooster in November at the Otori Daimyojin shrine (today's Otori Shrine), and it drew great crowds seeking lucky rakes. The shrine stood very close to the Yoshiwara, and on that day the quarter too is said to have overflowed with customers returning from the shrine.

This print belongs to the winter section and is among the most popular in the series. There is almost no human figure in the picture, and the composition that makes a cat the protagonist is often cited as a demonstration of Hiroshige's wit. Because the outside scenery is shown through the window lattice, viewers feel as if they were gazing out the window beside the cat.