One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.14Garden of woods and pond in a temple ground at Nippori

According to records published in 1559, a moat was constructed at Nippori which was originally called niibori, literally “new moat”, but the name in later years came to be pronounced nippori.
At the early part of the Edo period, many kinds of trees such as azaleas and cherry trees were planted on hills and slopes around a temple on a terrace in Nippori. In springtime, the beauty of the trees in full bloom would attract a great number of people from the city. Encouraged by this, other temples nearby vied with each other to turn their grounds into the most beautiful of the terrace area by planting various trees, laying stones and digging ponds.
Those who visited this area could spend the whole day enjoying the splendid scenery of flowers. Thus, Nippori was given and known by a new name to reflect the enjoyment had by people coming to the area. Different Chinese characters were used, reading “higurashi no sato”, which meant that this was a place where one could spend the whole day until sunset enjoying the beautiful scenery. This neighbourhood was also noted as a place for viewing the moon and for listening to insects’ singing in autumn.
Being located conveniently between Ueno mountain to the south and Asuka mountain to the north, both of which are on the same Hongo terrace, this site became a popular spot for viewing various types of cherry blossoms and was visited by many people all year round.
Hiroshige depicts in this print one of the temple gardens, where people are enjoying the cherry blossoms scattered throughout the green grounds.
Temple roofs are seen behind the cherry trees on the upper left-hand side of the print.