Iga Province: Ueno

A river flows at the bottom of the picture, with a wooden bridge atop a stone wall. On the bridge and the road in front, travelers in straw hats and people carrying loads walk. Beyond the bridge stand thatched-roof houses that look like teahouses or homes, and from there the road winds up the hillside into the distance.

The middle ground is gently sloping green hills with many slender pines. Beyond the hills, toward the left of the picture, the houses of the town appear small, and behind them a great gray mountain rises, with the low part of the sky dyed red.

Ueno was the central town of Iga, where the castle warden of the Tsu domain, ruled by the Todo family, was stationed, and it also lay on the road to Ise pilgrimage and to Nara. It is also known as the birthplace of the haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

Compared with provinces that have seas or famous temples and shrines, Iga is a basin province surrounded by mountains. Rather than drawing the castle or a famous sight large, Hiroshige conveys through the river, the bridge, and the road over the hills the feeling of a journey into a castle town among the mountains.