Morning after a Snowfall at Koishikawa

This is the only print in Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji that depicts a snow scene. Roofs and trees are thickly covered with snow, and the sky is graded from deep indigo to a bright color. Among the snowfields, a thin strip of indigo water peeps through, and a white Fuji rises beyond the clear air. Snow also lies thick on the roofs of the houses lined up in the left foreground.

On the second floor of the teahouse at left, women who have come to see the snow are gathered. One of them points at the sky, where three birds wheel small. The smallness of the birds conveys the height and breadth of the sky on a snowy morning. The women gather near the railing, each looking at the snowy view in her own way.

"Reki-sen" in the title is a Chinese-style name for Koishikawa, and "tan" means morning. Koishikawa was a hilly area with teahouses offering fine views. Denzuin was established there in the early Edo period, and residences of the Mito Tokugawa family and townhouses were also opened. The Yamanashi Prefectural Museum considers the view to be from a teahouse near Denzuin or Kitano Shrine (Ushi Tenjin). Koishikawa, where marshland once spread, was thus absorbed into Edo's urban area.