Otsu

Two-story shops line both sides, with signboards and lanterns hanging from their eaves. On the road in the foreground, a man leads an ox cart loaded with goods, and travelers in straw hats walk by. At right, someone sits resting in front of a shop. Beyond the slope the roofs of the town continue, and past them Lake Biwa spreads out, with several white-sailed boats floating on it.

Rows of houses at left and right frame the center road, at the end of which the lake appears, in a composition of strong perspective. Between the indigo of the lake and the pale colors of the sky, a line of geese flies in a V shape, adding movement to the picture.

Otsu was the largest post town on the Tokaido. Because the Nakasendo merges with the Tokaido at Kusatsu, this is the last station in the series. For the ox carts carrying goods to Kyoto, stones called kuruma-ishi (cart stones) were laid along the road from Otsu to Kyoto. Goods from the Hokuriku region and east of the lake gathered at the lake port, and the town bustled with trade.

This is a design by Hiroshige, the seventieth in the series and the last of the station designs. Hiroshige closes the series Eisen began with a snow scene at Nihonbashi with a view of Otsu looking out over the lake. The set held by the National Diet Library lacks this design.