Sekiya Village on the Sumida River

The road on the embankment draws a great arc, along which three riders gallop at full speed. The two in front pass each other in opposite directions, the one behind rides on down the road, and on each rider the garment on the back swells with wind. The gait of each horse is drawn differently, so that you can almost hear the hooves. The riders wear large round hats, and their faces are hidden.

A red-trunked pine rises diagonally from the inside of the road, and beyond it in the sky a small red Fuji floats. Mist hangs over the lowland of rice fields, suggesting an early-morning scene. The building at the far right is a kosatsuba, a notice board where laws and edicts were posted. The embankment along the road is painted bright yellow-green, set apart from the bluish tone of the low fields.

According to Adachi Ward materials, "Sekiya no Sato" takes its name from a checkpoint (seki) set up on the banks of the Sumida River in the Kamakura period. The Adachi City Local History Museum regards the road where the horsemen run as the Kamon Embankment, built in the early Edo period. Where other artists portrayed Sekiya serenely, Hokusai depicted it forcefully with galloping horses.