One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.20Ferry at Kawaguchi and Zenkoji Temple

To the north of Edo city, where the Arakawa River (actually the upper Sumida River) flowed west to east, was a town known as Kawaguchi. In ancient days, it was situated on the highway leading to north Japan and those who were going north had to cross the very deep river here by ferryboat. This print shows one such boat, poled by a ferryman, with passengers crossing the river.
Arakawa literally means “a wild river” and it was especially wild when it had rained heavily, at which time the river’s water level rose considerably and often flooded its banks. The current was also so swift that sometimes ferryboats overturned.
Forests were to be found at the river’s head and logs there were used for the building of houses in Edo city. The logs were bound together by ropes to make a raft, and a raftsman transported them down the river to the timber markets at Kiba, located at the mouth of the Sumida River. Six such rafts can be seen in this print.
On the north bank of the river stood Zenkoji Temple, founded in 1195, which can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of this print. On special occasions, the principal Buddhist image was exhibited to the public and attracted worshippers from Edo city. During the exhibition, a lottery took place within the temple grounds. Although gambling was usually prohibited by the shogunate, on this occasion, the lottery was tacitly permitted and the promoter of the lottery was required to donate a certain percentage of his revenue to the temple. According to old records, when the exhibition was held in 1774, two ferryboats serving the river were not enough, and visitors had to wait more than an hour and a half to cross the river.