Chiyogaike Pond, Meguro

A white waterfall tumbles in tiers down the cliff at right and pours into the pond in the foreground. Two figures stand on a small island in the middle of the pond, and others can be seen on the shore at right. On the slope at left cherries bloom in full, and above on the plateau pine woods and haze trail.

The blue of the pond, the white of the waterfall, the pink of the cherries and the green of the slope are clearly separated. The composition combines the vertical flow of the fall with the horizontal breadth of haze and pond.

Chiyogaike is a pond with a legend that in the Nanboku-cho period a lady-in-waiting named Chiyo, grieving the death of Nitta Yoshioki, threw herself into it. It is said to have been within the garden of a daimyo's secondary residence and counted as one of Meguro's famous places.

This is the twenty-third print of the Spring section. Together with the following Meguro New Fuji and Meguro Original Fuji, it depicts Meguro's famous places in three prints in a row. The censor's seal dates it to July 1856 (Ansei 3). With its garden-like scenery combining waterfall and pond, it shows that the gardens of daimyo mansions were known as famous places. It is also a valuable print preserving the appearance of a pond that has since been lost.