Original Fuji, Meguro

The green slope pressing in from the right is the Moto-Fuji mound, and people climb it among young pines. On the flat ground at left, benches stand in a row under trees turning color, where worshippers sit down. Beyond lie the fields and woods of Meguro, and in the distance snow-capped Mount Fuji rises.

The ridgeline of the mound cutting diagonally across the picture and a large pine rising straight upward form the framework of the composition. Green gradation expresses the roundness of the mound, and the red band on the horizon and the white of Fuji convey clear air. The placement of the tiny figures shows the height of the mound well.

Moto-Fuji was a mound about 12 meters high built in 1812 (Bunka 9) by members of the Fuji confraternity of Meguro village, and a Sengen shrine is said to have been enshrined at its top. It was believed that climbing a mound brought the same blessings as a pilgrimage to Fuji, and such Fuji mounds were built in various parts of Edo. After a new Fuji mound was built nearby, this one came to be called Moto-Fuji, the Original Fuji.

Although it belongs to the Spring section, the trees in the foreground appear tinted yellow and orange, an unusual coloring for a spring print. The series also includes New Fuji, Meguro, depicting the new Fuji mound in the same Meguro, so the two mounds are thought to have been meant to be compared.