Osumi Province: Sakurajima

In the center of the picture rises Sakurajima, its flat summit dyed reddish brown. On the green foot of the mountain, clusters of pink blossoms spread like a band, and small islands dot the seashore. Several white-sailed boats float in the bay in the foreground, and a pine grove grows thick on the cape at lower right.

In the inlet below, boats with furled sails line up, and pines can be seen on the shore beyond. The reddish brown and green of the island and the blue of the sea are clearly painted separately, and gray ranges continue in the distance. Place names are written small, suggesting the character of a guide to famous places.

Sakurajima is a volcano floating in Kinko Bay, and in the Edo period belonged to Osumi Province. It had a great eruption in An'ei 8 (1779) as well, and was the mountain symbolizing Satsuma and Osumi. From the castle town of Kagoshima its form was seen head-on across Kinko Bay, and it was widely known as a famous place.

The pink at the mountain's foot is thought to be cherry and other blossoms, and may also be a depiction that plays on the island's name. Hiroshige is said not to have visited Kyushu, and the picture is thought to be based on guidebooks to famous places and the like. The Art Institute of Chicago also holds this same print.