Izu Province: Hot Springs of the Shuzen Temple

At the bottom of the picture, the river drops from a rock shelf in several falls, throwing up white spray. Upstream a wooden bridge spans it, and farther back in the middle of the river are a rocky outcrop with a stone lantern and a small waterfall. Two-story inns line both banks, and a large pine spreads its branches in the right foreground.

The yellow roofs of the inns, the blue of the river, and the green of the mountains harmonize cleanly, with the sky at the top edge blurred in deep indigo. The composition leads the eye into the distance as if going upstream, and clearly shows how the hot spring town stretches long and narrow in the valley.

Shuzen-ji is a temple said to have been founded by Kobo Daishi, and the name of the hot spring town comes from this temple. The bath in the river is thought to be the "Tokko no Yu," said to have been made when Kobo Daishi struck a rock with his tokko (a vajra) and brought forth hot water. In the Kamakura period Minamoto no Yoriie was confined in this area and died there, and in the Edo period it was known as a place for hot spring cures.

For Izu Province the series chose a hot spring retreat in the mountains rather than a seaside sight. By drawing the river's flow and the row of inns in fine detail, it conveys the life of a hot spring town bustling with guests taking the waters. The impressions at the National Diet Library and the Tokyo National Museum have the same composition.