Inari Bridge and Minato Shrine, Teppozu

The masts of a large cargo ship moored in the foreground run vertically through the picture. Between them can be seen Inari Bridge, spanning the mouth of the river, and at left the shrine of Minato Inari surrounded by a red fence. Boats loaded with rice bales and other cargo line the river, and behind rise a town of white-walled warehouses and a snow-capped Mount Fuji.

Thick masts and diagonal ropes divide the picture largely, and within the gaps the detailed townscape is fitted. Cutting off a large foreground object at the edge of the frame is one of the representative techniques of this series.

Teppozu lay at the mouth of the Hatchobori and was the entrance to the port of Edo, where cargo ships from Kamigata and other provinces dropped anchor. Minato Inari (Teppozu Inari) drew the faith of sailors, and it is said that the precincts had a Fuji-zuka, a mound modeled on Mount Fuji. Ships that brought sake and cotton from Kamigata transferred their cargo to small boats here and carried it to the quays of the town.

The print, which lets Fuji peek through between masts, brings a distant famous mountain and the everyday life of a nearby port into a single picture. It was issued in the second month of Ansei 4, in the period when the series was being published most actively.