Ayase River and Kanegafuchi

Branches of a silk tree cover the top of the picture, with pale pink flowers and fine leaves hanging down. In the river at the center, a man in a hat works a raft with a pole. Reeds and stakes stand in the foreground, trees and houses line the far shore, and a small bridge can be seen in the distance. A single bird flies in the sky. Small boats are tied to the stakes on the bank.

The gradation from the pale color of the sky to the red band of sunset and its contrast with the blue of the river is gentle. The top of the picture is framed with a flowering branch in the foreground and the raftsman is placed at the center, expressing the unhurried flow of time. The flowers are drawn in a soft shape by layering fine lines radiating outward.

Kanegafuchi is said to have been named after a legend that a temple bell sank into the river. The Ayase River was also a waterway linking the villages of Musashi with Edo, and the sight of rafts being floated downstream conveys the water transport that supported life in Edo. This area lay in the northeastern suburbs of Edo, where waterside scenery stretched out.

This print belongs to the summer section, and its censor's seal dates it to the first month of Ansei 4 (1857). The silk tree is a tree whose flowers open on summer evenings, and the device of placing a seasonal flower in the foreground appears throughout the series.