Evening View, of Saruwaka-machi

Catalog note / 解説

This bustling street scene beneath the full moon represents Saruwaka-machi, the theater district in the city of Edo. All of the city's Kabuki theaters were clustered in this area where countless restaurants and teahouses catered to theatergoers. By law, performances had to end before sunset, so the streets were always crowded with people in the evening after the performances ended. An earlier edition of the print (left) shows a band of gray clouds under the moon, but this detail was eliminated in later editions (right).