One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.80Kanasugi Bridge and Shiba seashore

The place name Shibaura was derived from the turf (“shiba”) which covered the land along the seashore (“ura”). It was situated midway along the Tokaido Highway between Nihonbashi and Shinagawa stations.
The offshore fishing grounds were called Edomae, meaning the sea in front of Edo, and the fish caught there were considered the most delicious by Edo people.
Fishermen in Kanasugi village on the Shiba seashore made it a rule to donate some of the fish they caught to the shogun family four times a year. In compensation for the donation, the shogunate gave them fishing rights for the area.
During the Edo period, “ko” (a social gathering for religious purposes) was very popular among commoners. Usually it was formed by members of a community or a village for making pilgrimages to temples, shrines and mountains. Each member was required to pay a certain amount of money regularly to the group, and this money was accumulated until they went on the next pilgrimage.
Hiroshige depicts one of these kos, called “Edo ko”, as indicated by the banner in the bottom right-hand corner. A group of devoted worshippers of the Buddhist priest Nichiren is returning from its pilgrimage to Honmonji Temple at Ikegami, where the priest passed away in 1282. To indicate they were going on a pilgrimage they carried a pole, from the top of which hung a long and narrow red banner inscribed with “Namu myo ho ren ge kyo”, the invocation of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. The invocation was considered to be the basic principles for the sect. They proceeded to recite it while pounding fan-shaped hand drums and ringing small bells. In the bottom left-hand corner, Hiroshige has shrewdly included the publisher’s name of this series on small white and blue banners hanging from a pole. His own signature, written on a red rectangle, overlaps with the publisher’s name on the banners.
A group of the pilgrims is now crossing the Kanasugi Bridge, which spans the Shinbori River and is a part of the Tokaido Highway.
Note: W. E. Griffis wrote that the invocation literally means in English, “Hail, the true way of salvation, the blossom of doctrine”.