The Tama River in Musashi Province

The picture is divided into three by diagonal bands: the foreground bank, the indigo river in the center, and Fuji beyond the haze. A boat loaded with cargo heads for the opposite shore, and people and horses walk slowly along the bank. These two groups are the only figures depicted, which makes the stillness of the broad river stand out. On the boat, the boatman stands beside the cargo.

The ripples on the water are carved in fine lines. In the foreground current, no color is applied, and karazuri, a technique that gives the paper only an embossed relief, is used so that the lines of the waves emerge according to the light. Fuji in the back is drawn large in indigo alone, separated from the brown bank in front by a long horizontal band of haze. Fuji's slopes are painted in indigo, leaving only the summit white.

In the Edo period the Tama River had almost no bridges, and ferry crossings were set up at various places such as Hino, Koremasa, Noborito, Futago, Maruko, and Rokugo. The Yamanashi Prefectural Museum surmises that this picture shows Fuji seen from a ferry crossing in the middle reaches. The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum sees it as the view from a crossing near Chofu.