One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.72Ferry and Benten Shrine at Haneda

Between Shinagawa station and Kawasaki station on the Tokaido Highway flowed the Tama River. At the mouth of the river and on its left bank was the largest fishing village in Edo, Haneda. On the occasion of Edo castle being built for Iyeyasu Tokugawa, the villagers helped transport timber from the upper Tama River to the castle. In later years, when Iyeyasu fought a battle in Osaka in 1614 and 1615, the villagers provided him with ships as well as seamen. In appreciation of their contribution to Iyeyasu, the villagers were permitted by the shogunate to fish in a wide area of the sea, north and south of this village. During the Edo period they made it a rule to present fish such as sea bream, flounder and prawns to the shogunate once a month.
Offshore of the village in Edo Bay was a small sand island on which stood a shrine called Benten that enshrined a goddess who was believed to have the power to protect seafarers from danger. As a result, people who were destined to work on the sea came to the shrine to worship the goddess. About 100 metres upstream from the mouth of the Tamagawa River was a ferry called Haneda no Watashi. The sinewy hands and leg of a boatman rowing a ferryboat are depicted in the foreground of the print. On the left, framed by a single oar attached to the stern and the side of the boat, is Benten Shrine, surrounded by pine trees. In front stands a torii, the traditional archway to a shrine. Two sailboats with their sails lowered are anchored in the bay. To the right of the shrine and farther out to sea stands a lighthouse to guide ships and boats travelling in Edo Bay.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec took a hint from the bald composition of this print by drawing a poster for the Moulin Rouge nightclub, a lithograph called “Jane Avril”.