Ota

On the bank in the foreground, a person who looks like a pilgrim with a staff and travelers seated on stones wait for a boat. At the base of a pine at left a boat has been hauled up, and in mid-river a ferry carrying people and cargo heads for the far bank. In the back, a person poling a boat is also visible.

The indigo of the river occupies a large horizontal band of the picture, contrasting with the sky above in red gradation. The black branches of the pine at left tighten the picture, and the mountains and pine woods at right rear convey the width of the river.

Ota was a post town in Mino, at the foot of the Ota ferry across the Kiso River. This ferry was counted among the three great hardships of the Nakasendo, together with the Kiso Kakehashi and the Usui Pass. On the far bank was the Imawatari landing, from which the road continued to Fushimi-juku. One honjin and one waki-honjin were placed in the post town.

This is by Hiroshige. With its composition combining people waiting for the ferry and a broad river, it can be said to depict the highway's hardship as a calm sunset scene. What remains in the memory is that it turns its eye not to the severity of the hardship but to the peaceful time spent waiting for a boat.