Sanuki Province: Distant View of Mount Zozu

A party of pilgrims holding sedge hats and parasols walks up the slope road in the foreground. A signpost stands by the roadside at right, and trees bearing red flowers grow thick on the slope at left. Beyond are pine groves and fields, with straw-roofed houses visible in dots.

In the middle distance mist lies in a band, and above it Mount Zozu looms large. The sheer rock face on the right side is painted brown and the slope on the left green, so the shape of the mountain stands out clearly. Between the trees partway up the mountain peek the roofs of shrine buildings.

On Mount Zozu is enshrined Kotohira Daigongen (today's Kotohira-gu), which drew the worship of sailors and ordinary people as a deity of the sea. In the Edo period pilgrimage to Konpira flourished to the point of rivaling the Ise pilgrimage, and people from all over crossed to ports such as Marugame to worship. Stories also survive of people and even dogs sent to worship as proxies, and it was beloved as a destination for ordinary people's travels.

As the "distant view" of the title says, the print's highlight is that its star is not the famous shrine itself but the road leading to it and the people on it. The cheerful figures of the pilgrims express the mood of a journey.