Mitsui Shop at Surugacho in Edo

On the large roof at right, roofers are at work. A man near the ridge tosses something to a companion below, and another man stretches out both hands to catch it. Ladders are propped against the eaves, and two kites fly in the sky. The composition, as if looking up from the ground, emphasizes the slope of the roof and the breadth of the sky.

Fuji shows its snowy form in the valley between the roofs on either side, beyond the distant townscape. On the signboards in the foreground the characters for "cash" and "dry goods" can be read, showing this is a large shop dealing in drapery. According to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the sign reading "cash, no markup" indicates a business selling every item at a fixed price for cash. On Fuji's slopes the mottled pattern of melting snow is visible, and a green grove spreads in the foreground.

Surugacho was a district north of Nihonbashi, in what is now Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo Ward, and was the site of the Echigoya Mitsui drapery store, the predecessor of today's Mitsukoshi. The movements of the people on the high roof and the thin lines drawn by the kite strings create an easy sense of motion in the wide sky.