Ashida

From the left to the middle of the picture, a white road winds up the hillside. Pines stand at intervals along the road, and travelers, loaded horses, and palanquins head toward the pass. At right is a large green hill, with figures visible on the road at its summit. In the middle distance a steep rocky mountain peeks out.

The hill is painted broadly in bright green, with fine dots indicating the grass. The rocky mountain behind is drawn heavily in indigo and gray, and a pale pink mountain looks out behind it. The pines, shaped like rounded clipped forms, are lined up regularly, and the contrast between the curved green surface and the straight trunks is the highlight of this print.

Ashida was a post town between Mochizuki and Nagakubo, with the Kasatori Pass looming to its west. Along the pass road ran a line of pines said to have been planted in the Edo period, probably giving travelers shade. The post town is also known for its honjin, which preserves items from when Princess Kazunomiya passed through.

This is a design by Utagawa Hiroshige. The impression at the Tokyo National Museum is shown here, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art also has the same design, and the colors of the sky and mountains differ between impressions. His choice of the scenery of the pass road over the post town itself shows Hiroshige's interests well.