Iwamurada

In the center of the picture, a man with a raised staff and others grabbing each other's hair grapple together. On the ground lie men who have fallen or are crawling, with hats, bundles, and coins scattered about. Under a tree at the far left a half-naked man sits watching the uproar, while at right a startled dog barks.

The figures' robes are painted in indigo and green and, together with the skin tones, fill the lower half of the picture. Behind them a flat plain with a river and distant mountains is drawn in pale tones, a calm landscape that contrasts with the fracas. At far left a notice board like an official signboard and a flag can be seen.

Iwamurada was a post town between Otai and Shionata, in the middle of the Saku plain. It was also a town where the headquarters of the Iwamurada domain was located, and it is said to have prospered as a market town where goods from the Saku region gathered.

This is one of the designs by Keisai Eisen, who handled the first half of the series. The Tokyo National Museum has both a signed impression and an unsigned one, and the signed impression is shown here. Among Eisen's designs are several that, like this one, show the vivid movements of people.