Surugacho

Echigoya shops continue far back on both sides of the street, with white marks on indigo curtains. Shoppers, porters carrying loads, palanquins and processions pass along the street, a flow of people running from front to back. At the end of the street snow-capped Fuji rises large above the clouds.

In a perspective composition where the rows of shops on both sides converge at one point, the eye is naturally led to Fuji in the distance. The indigo curtains, white Fuji and the golden-tinged band of haze create a bright, festive picture.

Suruga-cho is said to have been named after Suruga because Fuji could be seen straight ahead along the street. The Mitsui family's Echigoya was a drapery store that grew with its policy of cash sales at fixed prices, and had shops on both sides of the street.

This is the eighth print of the Spring section. Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji also includes a print of the same street, Sketch of the Mitsui Shop at Suruga-cho in Edo, so the two artists' approaches can be compared. The censor's seal dates it to September 1856 (Ansei 3), in the first year of publication. Among Edo's famous places, Suruga-cho, which combined commercial prosperity with a view of Fuji, is thought to have been a fitting location for the opening of the series.