Otsu (Translation)
Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road (Series Title)
東海道五十三次之內 大津 走井茶店 (Primary Title)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重, Japanese, 1797 - 1858 (Artist)
Otsu is the last station on the Tokaido Road before reaching the destiny of Kyoto, the capital of Japan during the Edo period. Located on the southwest of Lake Biwa and about ten miles from Kyoto, Otsu benefits from both land and water resources for seafood, agriculture and transportation. Hiroshige illustrates in this print a daily scene in the front of the Soii Teahouse, where serves tea and light meals at Otsu: a man washing fish by a well, a child playing on the ground, and ox-driven carts laden with rice bags and wood logs passing through the street toward the capital of Kyoto. The well, referred to the Soii well that erupts clear water, was recorded in Japanese poems as early as the Heian period (794-1185).
Edo period (1615-1868)
廣重画 Hiroshige ga
Publisher's seal: 保永堂 Hoeido
Censor's seal: 極 kiwame
東海道五十三次之內 大津
General Endowment Fund
Strange, Edward Fairbrother. "The Colour-prints of Hiroshige". Vol. 1. London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1925.
Hiroshige, Ando. "The Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido". Edited by Ichitaro Kondo. Translated by Charles S. Terry. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1960. Plate 54.
Hiroshige, Ando. "The Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido". Edited by Ichitaro Kondo. Translated by Charles S. Terry. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1960. Plate 54.
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