山頂より不二眺望　戸塚　藤沢迄二り

About this print

Two men in red and navy jackets and bowler hats ride horses along a mountain road. Beyond them, past a large pine branch, white Mount Fuji rises straight up. A telegraph pole stands beside the road. On the right, a man carrying a load passes a woman holding an umbrella. The title means "viewing Fuji from the hilltop." This is the Totsuka post town scene from Utagawa Hiroshige III's Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki (Famous Places of the Tokaido, Revised Travel Guide), published in 1875 (Meiji 8). The National Diet Library titles it Kaisei Gojusan Eki (The Fifty-three Stations, Revised).

Totsuka was the fifth post station counting from Nihonbashi. Leaving Edo in the morning, travelers reached it just in time for their first night, and it had many inns (hatago). It was a key station on the road, where the Oyama road and the Kamakura Kaido also met.

In Totsuka, the sites of two mitsuke, the guarded entrances to the post town, still remain.

Glossary