Shimosa Province: The Outer Bay at Choshi Beach

The foreground is a beach where white waves break, and travelers in straw hats walk along it. In the sea beyond, black reefs poke up here and there, and a small boat is rowed among the waves. At left a great cape with brown rock faces juts into the sea, and at back right a flat rocky island floats.

The sea shifts from deep indigo in front to bright blue offshore, and white-sailed ships recede into the distance. Above the horizon is dyed yellow, and toward the left a small white Fuji floats. The rugged shapes of the rocks are boldly differentiated with fine lines of brown and green.

Toura refers to the coast facing the open Pacific Ocean as seen from the port of Choshi at the mouth of the Tone River. According to the description of the work held by the Funabashi City West Library, it depicts the coast of Inuwaka, and the rock at left is said to be Senkigaiwa, where Minamoto no Yoshitsune supposedly hid a thousand soldiers.

Placing a far-off Fuji on the horizon is thought to be a device to show that Fuji can be seen even from the eastern edge of the Kanto region. A rugged, rocky seashore like this must have been a rare sight for the people of Edo. The impressions at the National Diet Library and the Tokyo National Museum have the same composition.