Distant View of Mount Asama from Urawa Station

On the road in the foreground, an old man pulls a horse loaded on its back by a rope, and at his feet a child gathers something with a rake-like tool. In the middle walk a traveler in a hat and blue robe and a man carrying a wooden box on his back. Thin trees just beginning to bud line both sides of the road, and beyond them are straw-roofed teahouses and white-walled houses.

At the back left an ocher mountain spews smoke, and green ranges overlap to its right. The rice field in the foreground is filled with water and shines white. Eisen unifies the sky in pale yellow and depicts the hazy air of spring with the mountain's smoke and the lines of the thin branches.

Urawa-juku was the third station from Edo, and although small as a post town, it bustled as a market town with markets held on days ending in 2 and 7. Mount Asama cannot actually be seen from Urawa, and the "Distant View of Mount Asama" in the title is thought to be a device indicating the road ahead.

This is a print by Eisen, with the title written as "Shiso-ji no eki" and bearing the signature and the publisher's seal. Eisen's way of writing the title is not consistent, and he changes the characters from print to print, such as "Kisokaido," "Kiso Kaido," and "Shisoji." Adding a distant mountain to the station at the start of the journey, this print evokes anticipation of the road ahead.