Fuji Seen from Gotenyama at Shinagawa on the Tokaido

The cherry trees on the hill bear white blossoms like clouds on the tips of thin branches. Between the branches, in the distance beyond the sea, Fuji shows its small white summit. To the left spreads the surface of Edo Bay, showing that this was a place where sea, cherry blossoms, and Fuji could be seen at once. Clouds trail horizontally above the sea at left, giving depth to the distant view.

On the slope of the hill, viewers have gathered. At lower left two people seated on a mat share sake, and on the path a man with a child on his shoulders, a woman with a baby on her back, and men clowning with fans in hand move about. Teahouse roofs line up at the back right, conveying the bustle of a pleasure spot. In the right foreground a pine spreads its branches, and the white of the cherries and the dark green of the pine stand side by side.

Gotenyama was a hill north of Shinagawa-juku and was known in the Edo period as a famous cherry-blossom spot. This print is one of the ten so-called "Ura Fuji" prints added after the original 36. The indigo gradation (bokashi, a printing technique that fades color gradually) used in the sky and sea creates the bright air of spring. Shinagawa-juku was the first post station on the Tokaido, and Gotenyama was an excursion spot for blossom viewing crowded with the people of Edo.