田子の浦景　興津　江尻迄一里三丁

About this print

Two bearers carry a palanquin (kago) beneath a large pine. On the right, a man in Western clothes, with a red jacket, a hat and a bag hanging from his shoulder, points the way ahead. On the shore to the left are people wading in the water and lying on the beach. This scene of the Okitsu post town is part of 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).

The title on the tag is "Tago no ura kei" (Tago Bay). Today the name Tagonoura brings to mind the port in the city of Fuji, but in the time of the Man'yoshu, the ancient poetry collection, Tagonoura is thought to have meant the coast from the foot of Satta Pass to around Yui and Kanbara. The Okitsu shore was a scenic spot called Kiyomigata, and at Seikenji, a temple facing the Tokaido, Korean envoys (Chosen Tsushinshi) were entertained in the Edo period.

Kiyomigata disappeared under landfill work that began in 1962 (Showa 37).

Glossary