汐見坂の景　白須賀　二川迄一里廿四丁

About this print

Looking down from a slope, the blue sea spreads wide, with white sails offshore. On the road, a rickshaw, a man in a hat and Western clothes, and travelers carrying loads come and go. "Shiomizaka" on the tag is the slope just before the Shirasuka post town. This is one print 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).

The Shirasuka post town was once near the sea, but after heavy damage from the Hoei earthquake and tsunami of 1707 (Hoei 4), it was moved to the high ground at the top of the slope. Shiomizaka was known as the place where travelers heading east from Kyoto first caught sight of the Pacific Ocean and Mount Fuji.

When the Tokaido Main Line was built in the Meiji era, this slope was too steep for steam locomotives, so the tracks were laid through Washizu along Lake Hamana. Because of that, parts of Shirasuka still keep something of the old townscape.

Glossary