Horse Market in Early Summer at Chiryu

Stakes line the field, and many horses are tethered to them. Horses graze, lift their heads, or turn their backs; each stands differently, and their coats are distinguished as white, black, and dappled. In the foreground, men have just brought up horses. The shading of the coats also expresses the roundness of the horses' bodies. The herds of horses are placed on the left and right, with a narrow road extending between them to the back.

At Chiryu a horse fair was held every year from the end of the fourth lunar month to the beginning of the fifth. Shuka in the title means the beginning of summer. Under the lone pine at the center, bakuro (brokers who mediated the buying and selling of horses) are making deals, and the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum introduces this pine as the Dango Pine (the Negotiation Pine). A crowd has gathered under the pine, and people carrying loads come and go on the road.

Diagonal brush lines are layered on the grass, showing the wind sweeping across the field. A waterside spreads in the back, and the top of the sky is dyed red. The print makes the market held in a field outside the post station, rather than the townscape, its subject. At the back right can be seen a black hill and trees swaying in the wind.