Eight Views of the Ryukyu Islands: Autumn Sky at Choko

From the left edge of the picture toward the lower right, a long causeway of stacked stone extends gently over the sea, rising into a higher bridge partway along. A single person carrying a load walks on the causeway. On the water at the lower left float two pleasure boats flying flags, and at the lower right a tree with yellowing leaves stands on the shore. In the sea beyond float several small islands thick with pines, and a small conical mountain peeks out past them.

Choko-tei is said to be a road of about one kilometer built by the Ryukyu Kingdom in the mid-15th century to connect Naha, then an island floating in the sea, with the land on the Shuri side. The work was done to receive investiture envoys from China, and it is said to have been named after a poem saying that it looks like a rainbow from afar.

Hokusai did not see the actual scenery, and is thought to have drawn it using illustrations in a Chinese book as clues. The distant conical mountain is something that could not have been visible from Naha, and it is also said that Hokusai overlaid the shape of Mount Fuji, familiar to the people of Edo. The Urasoe Art Museum owns the complete set of eight designs. The image is an impression owned by the Art Institute of Chicago.