Oumayagashi

At lower left a ferry has reached the shore, carrying women with towels wrapped around their heads and a man. On the bank at right are stone walls and rocks, with willows and tree branches hanging down from above. Beyond the water, houses and trees on the far bank extend horizontally, and small boats come and go.

The pale indigo of the water and the dark indigo of the night sky fill the picture, while the green of the willow and the gray of the rocks anchor the foreground. With large hanging branches and rocks placed in the foreground, the far side of the broad river appears distant. The houses on the far bank, sunk in the darkness of night, strongly impress the viewer with the width of the river.

Omayagashi was a landing north of the shogunate's rice warehouses, the Asakusa Gokura, and had a ferry connecting it with Honjo on the opposite bank. The women aboard the boat are thought to be streetwalkers called yotaka, conveying an aspect of life along the riverbank at night. The ferry ran at night too, and was an important means of crossing for people traveling between the towns on either side of the river.

This print belongs to the winter section and is a different print from the summer section's "Pine of Success and Oumayagashi, Asakusa River." It draws attention for including not only the bright views of famous places but also people living at the margins of Edo.