Kamo Shrine at Ageo Station

A straw-roofed house stands at the center of the picture, and in the yard in front of it men spread out straw to work. Beside a large barrel set in a wooden frame, a woman arranges rice bales. Inside the house a woman peers out, and travelers in hats pass by on the road at left.

At right a pine with twisting branches rises, and beyond it can be seen white banners reading "Kamo Daimyojin" and the shrine's buildings. At left are a blue stream and clumps of trees. The dull red sky and ocher ground convey the calm air of the harvest season.

Ageo-juku was a post station about ten ri from Edo, a distance that travelers who left Nihonbashi early in the morning made their first overnight stop. The Kamo shrine of the title is considered to be Kamo Shrine in Kamomiya Village, founded by transferring the deity of Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, and was located between Omiya-juku and Ageo-juku.

This is a print by Eisen, unsigned. Its subject is not the post town itself but farmhouse people at work along the road. Though the title names a famous shrine, the shrine is kept to a corner of the picture and local life is placed at the center, which seems to show Eisen's interest.