Desolate Winter Scene at Hamamatsu

A thick cedar trunk runs vertically through the center of the picture. At its foot, travelers and local people gather around a bonfire and hold out their hands to warm themselves. The smoke changes color gradually from black to white as it rises along the trunk into the sky. The cedar trunk is painted in a reddish color and stands out against the dull winter fields.

A little apart from the circle of fire, a man in traveling dress and a hat stands alone, looking toward the bonfire. Behind him spread harvested fields, dotted with mounds of rice straw. In the pine grove in the field is a notice board, which the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum identifies as the historic site known as the Zazanza Pine. It is said that the Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori held a drinking party under this pine. The people around the fire huddle with rounded backs, and their postures convey the severity of the cold.

At the back right are drawn the townscape of Hamamatsu and the keep of Hamamatsu Castle. Hamamatsu was the largest post station in Totomi, and according to Hamamatsu City materials there were six honjin and 94 hatago in the Tenpo era. The print holds in one sheet the cold of the withered winter fields and the warmth of people around a fire. The sky is printed in deep indigo only at the top edge and left white below, expressing the dry winter air. Near the horizon stand slender trees that have lost their leaves.