Distant View of Akasaka Reservoir from Kinokuni Slope

In the right foreground a party of samurai in hats advances in a line toward the viewer. Behind the leader, long feathered spears with decorated tips stand high. At left the moat's surface spreads out, dotted with the leaves of water plants. At the roadside is a notice board like an official placard, and houses and woods can be seen further back.

The grayish sky, the indigo of the moat, and the green of the embankment make a calm palette. The thin lines of the spears run vertically through the picture, leading the line of the party from front to back.

Kinokuni Slope passed beside the residence of the Kishu Tokugawa family and followed the moat of Akasaka-mitsuke. Tameike in Akasaka was a large pond that also served as the outer moat of Edo Castle, and in the early Edo period was also a source of water supply. It is a landscape of samurai districts where the residences of daimyo and bannermen stood.

The series has several pictures of Tameike, and this one views from above the slope, at a distance, the same Tameike as "The Paulownia Grove at Akasaka" in the summer section. It is a picture of the daily life of a samurai district rather than a famous sight, and the quiet pace of the procession remains in the memory.