Motomachi Forked Road at Totsuka

A horse has arrived at the teahouse on the left of the picture, and the traveler is bending down from the saddle about to jump off. A woman from the shop comes to greet him near the bench, and the packhorse driver holds the reins. The fun of this print lies in catching the arrival in the middle of the motion.

Placards hanging from the eaves bear names such as Oyama Kochu. A kochu is a group formed to make pilgrimages to Oyama or to temples and shrines, and such placards show that a party of that group used this shop as a resting place.

By the foot of the bridge on the right stand a stone lantern and a signpost carved with Left, Kamakura Road. The title's Motomachi Betsudo refers to the place where the road to Kamakura branches off the Tokaido. Beyond are fields, rows of houses, and distant mountain ranges, and the sky is faintly colored at its lower edge.

The bridge at right is Yoshida Ohashi over the Kashio River, and beyond it the road to Kamakura divided. A traveler leaning on a staff stands on the bridge, and a quiet time unlike the commotion of the teahouse in front flows there. The details are carefully drawn, to the point that the writing on the placards hanging from the teahouse eaves can be read.