Kaga Province: Fishing Fires on Lake Renko, One of the Eight Views of Kanazawa

At the bottom of the picture are a pine-covered sandbar and straw-roofed houses linked by a wooden bridge, with people going back and forth across it. In the lagoon in the middle, many small boats float, lit by fishing fires. At the back, green hills jut out into the lake, and brown mountains rise beyond them.

The sky sinks into gray with only the mountain rims dyed red, suggesting the hour as day fades. Bands of pale blue and deep indigo on the water show the breadth of the lagoon, and the small boats scattered like dots convey a quiet fishing scene.

Renko is another name for Kahokugata, a large lagoon spreading to the north of the castle town of Kanazawa. The Eight Views of Kanazawa in the title is thought to have been a selection of eight scenes around Kanazawa modeled on the Eight Views of Xiaoxiang in China, and "fishing fires" is one of the standard subjects.

This print was published in Ansei 2 (1855), later than many of the prints that appeared in Kaei 6 (1853). The National Diet Library also holds an impression with the same composition. Though it depicts night fishing, the sky keeps some of the brightness of dusk, giving priority to showing the breadth of the scene. Hiroshige composes the fishing fires on the lake as a quiet waterside view.