Takasaki

At the right foreground, a pair of travelers in hats have stopped, and a man holding a basket bends low, speaking to them. At left a man with a fan in hand runs over from the teahouse. The teahouse is a straw-roofed hut enclosed with reed screens, and customers can be seen inside.

A river flows leisurely through the middle, a row of houses continues on the far bank, and a bridge spans it at back right. The green embankment on the right and the blue mountains behind give the picture a calm breadth. It is a print characteristic of Hiroshige, who puts the amusement of a scene of travel into the gestures of the figures.

Takasaki was a post town that doubled as a castle town, and it had no honjin, only inns. The Mikuni Kaido also branched off from the station, making it a key point of transportation in Joshu. The river depicted is thought to be the Karasu River, which flows west of the station.

This is a print by Hiroshige and bears the seal of the publisher Hoeido. The impression in the Art Institute of Chicago is the same design as that in the Tokyo National Museum. Hiroshige used in this mountainous series too the method he had cultivated in the Tokaido series of drawing small exchanges between travelers, adding human warmth to the landscape.