The Entwined Camphor Trees at Azuma Shrine

Two boats move along the waterway in the foreground, and cherries bloom on the embankment bank where people walk. The embankment road bends at the back and becomes an approach lined with red banners leading to the grove at left. Rising especially tall in the grove is the entwined tree, with the roof of a shrine visible beneath it. Geese fly in a line across the sky.

The blue waterway and the white embankment road lead the eye back through the picture in diagonal bends. The gray-green of the fields, the pale crimson of the cherries and the deep green of the grove form layers, and the red band at the horizon conveys distance. The line of geese shows the breadth of the sky and adds the calm air of a spring dusk.

Azuma no Mori is today's Azuma Shrine, said to enshrine Princess Ototachibana, who threw herself into the sea during the eastern campaign of Yamato Takeru. In the precincts stood a camphor tree with two trunks drawing together from a single root, which drew worship as a lucky tree for marital harmony. The title writes it as azusa, but it is said to have actually been a camphor tree.

This print belongs to the Spring section. Placing the sacred tree of a famous place as the protagonist but small in the distance, with the pilgrimage route in front, is a composition often seen in prints of suburban famous places.