Toriimoto

At left is a two-story teahouse built against the cliff, where travelers rest on benches atop a stone wall. Two men go down the slope below the cliff. At lower right the roofs of houses peek out, and beyond them Lake Biwa spreads out. Sailboats float on the lake, and low mountains line the far shore.

The cliff at left is cut diagonally across a large part of the picture, and the expanse of the lake opens at right in a bold composition. The sky shifts from indigo at the top to a pale vermilion at the bottom, echoing the blue of the lake. A single pine leaning out from the cliff toward the lake emphasizes height and depth.

Toriimoto-juku was a post town in Sakata District, Omi Province, whose specialties were the medicine Akadama Jinkyogan and rain capes. On Surihari Pass to the north of the town was a teahouse called Boko-do with a full view of Lake Biwa, which is said to have been famous as a resting place for travelers. The teahouse in the picture is thought to be this Boko-do.

This is a design by Hiroshige, and the vermilion seal is mistakenly stamped "sixty-three." Choosing a view from the pass rather than the town, it is the first design in this series to draw Lake Biwa on a large scale. The lake appears again in the design for the final station, Otsu.