View from Massaki of Suijin Shrine, Uchigawa Inlet, and Sekiya

A large round window opened in the wall of the room occupies most of the picture. Outside the window plum branches extend, and beyond them boats float on the Sumida River and the Uchigawa Inlet. At right are the trees of the Suijin grove, in the distance Sekiya village and Mount Tsukuba, and geese cross the sky. At the left edge a hanging flower vase holding white flowers peeks in.

The gray-green of the wall and the vermilion of the pillar surround the round window, and only within it is the picture filled with bright sky and the blue of water. The composition, like a frame looking out from the interior, places the viewer too in the position of a guest seated in the room enjoying the scenery.

Massaki is on the west bank of the Sumida River, around today's Minami-Senju, where restaurants and teahouses lined the area around Massaki Inari and sold the view across the river of the Suijin grove and Sekiya village. Sekiya village was countryside near Senju, a place also depicted in Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

This print belongs to the Spring section and, in contrast to the preceding print, views the far side of the river from the Massaki side. The bold composition using the room of a teahouse as a frame is thought to render directly the viewpoint of Edo people enjoying famous places.