Goten Hill at Shinagawa

In the middle of the picture an ocher cliff continues in tiers, and on the plateau above stand rows of cherry and pine trees. People climb up and down narrow paths between the cliffs, and the low ground in the foreground is a wide hollow with remaining puddles, where small figures also walk.

The pale pink of the cherries, the deep green of the pines and the ocher of the bare earth are layered horizontally and continue into the gray-blue hollow below. Expressing the cut faces of the cliff with horizontal bands strongly conveys the scale of the hill that was cut away. Drawing the figures as tiny dots also emphasizes the height of the cliff.

Goten Hill got its name because a residence of the shogun's family once stood there, and cherries were planted by the mid-Edo period, making it a blossom-viewing spot near the post town of Shinagawa. It is said that when Perry's fleet arrived in 1853 (Kaei 6), earth for building the Odaiba forts off Shinagawa was cut from here, greatly changing the shape of the hill.

This is one of the cherry-blossom prints of the Spring section. In depicting a blossom-viewing spot, yet including the cut-away hillside just as it was, the print is thought to show the changes taking place in Edo around the opening of the country.