The Famous Teahouse at Mariko

In front of the teahouse on the right, a sign reading Famous Tororo Soup leans against the wall, and travelers seated on benches lift bowls to their mouths. A woman serves from inside the shop, and placards reading Ochazuke and Sake and Snacks hang from the eaves.

Mariko's tororo soup is a local specialty, known also from Matsuo Basho's haiku about plum blossoms, young greens, and the tororo soup of Mariko post station. Beside the teahouse a budding tree stretches its branches, recalling the season in the poem.

On the left, a traveler walks away with a staff over his shoulder, and behind the shop a rounded mountain rises gently. The top of the sky is shaded red. In the first printing of this picture the station name was written with one set of characters for Mariko, and in later impressions it was changed to another.

Mariko-juku was the 20th post station from Edo and one of the smaller stations on the Tokaido. Even so, having the specialty tororo soup made it a place that stayed in travelers' memories. Rather than a famous view, Hiroshige took as his subject the relaxed expressions of travelers enjoying a local specialty. Even the texture of the thatch on the teahouse roof and the dried goods hanging from the eaves are drawn in detail.