All Rivers Converge and Flow into the Sea

Catalog note / 解説

The location in this <i>uchiwa-e</i> (rigid fan print) design by Hiroshige is the high ground at the southern (Shinagawa) end of the Takanawa district in south Edo. It is early morning and the summer sun is about to rise over Edo Bay and the Boso Peninsula far away to the east. A prostitute, still dishevelled from sleep, is lifting the netting that has protected her against mosquitoes during the night. Below on the left one can just discern among the pine trees the top of a <i>torii</i> gate (a two-column entrance) and a small shrine. This is the Susaki Shrine, dedicated to Benten, the goddess of water. Not visible, like the customer with whom the woman has probably spent the night, is the…