One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.105Onmaya (stable) riverbank

East of Asakusa, along the Sumida River, stood warehouses owned by the Tokugawa shogunate to store rice brought by boats from the various lands under the direct control of the shogunate. There was a stable (Onmaya) close by where packhorses were maintained to deliver rice to Edo castle or to the warrior’s residential quarters by means of horseback.
People used a ferry because there was no bridge available at this section of the river. The ferry was named Onmayagashi no Watashi, meaning “the ferry at Onmaya river bank”. This print shows an approaching ferry after dark, with two women standing and a man sitting behind them. They are part of a group of streetwalkers who have come all the way from a poor village on the other side of the river to earn more money around amusement areas on this side of the river. In the pitch darkness, Hiroshige has highlighted the approaching group. The typical attire of these kinds of women is well depicted. For example, they made it a rule to wear black kimonos and leather socks, and their heads are covered with towels of different shades of blue and white. To attract the attention of men, they wear red belts and deliberately show the bottom of their red underwear from behind the rolled-up hem of their kimonos. Not surprisingly, their faces are heavily made up. The man sitting behind them, his head also covered with a towel, is their agent (“gyu”). At night, the streetwalkers (“yotaka”) would eat bowls of buckwheat noodles sold by a hawker, and the dish was named “yotaka soba”.
Although Hiroshige has depicted such humble people in this print, his ingenuity has not revealed anything which would degrade it.
Traffic on the river seems heavy even after dark.