Moto-Hachiman Shrine, Sunamura

A stone torii stands at lower right, with white cherries blooming around it. From the torii an embankment road lined with pines extends toward the back, where worshippers walk. Beyond is a marsh thick with reeds, small boats move along the waterways, white sails float on the distant Edo Bay, and low mountains on the far shore are hazy.

Green reed beds and the blue of water occupy most of the picture, and the white of the cherries in the foreground, the indigo of the sky and the red band of the horizon tighten the whole. From the elevated viewpoint, the winding embankment and waterways lead the eye toward the back. Keeping the line between sea and sky low emphasizes the breadth of the marsh.

Moto-Hachiman takes its name from the tradition that Tomioka Hachimangu in Fukagawa originally stood on this site, and it corresponds to today's Tomigaoka Hachimangu. Sunamura was a village of new fields reclaimed from the seashore, and people are said to have come from the town of Edo to enjoy the cherries in the precincts and the sea view.

This is one of the Spring section's prints of the seashore at the edge of town. The composition looking down over a wide marsh also serves as a record of the waterside scenery that spread across the east of Edo.