View of the Karasu River at Kuragano Station

In the foreground, naked children wade into the shallows, chasing fish with baskets in hand. On top of the wooden weir stands a child in a red robe, and you can almost hear the sound of falling water. At right a woman with a hand towel on her head washes a tub, and from the board fence above her a woman with her hair done up peers at the river.

At upper right a sail-cloth awning is stretched, and the branches of what looks like a plum tree extend. Beyond the river are boats with cargo and boatmen with poles, and on the far bank continue green mountains and houses. The composition gathers people's movements in the foreground and shows the river's expanse in the distance.

Kuragano prospered as the uppermost river port on the Tone River water transport route, and boats loaded with tribute rice and other goods went down the Karasu River toward Edo. The Nikko Reiheishi Kaido also branched off from the station.

This is a print by Eisen, titled "Kiso Kaido," with his signature and the publisher's seal. Near the start of the series, Eisen adds Mount Asama at Urawa and Mount Fuji at Omiya and Konosu in the distance, drawing in the mountains visible from the Kanto Plain like landmarks of the journey. Here he conveys vividly the life of the station's river port through the figures of children and women. After Hiroshige's prints began at Shinmachi, Eisen took charge of this Kuragano and the three Joshu prints of Itahana and Sakamoto.