One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.3Yamashita cho, Hibiya and Soto Sakurada

Yamashita-cho was a town located outside the Yamashita gate of Edo castle. This print shows a view from the town towards Hibiya and Soto Sakurada during the New Year’s holidays. In the far distance, beyond feudal lords’ mansions, looms Mt. Fuji covered with snow.
In this print many symbols of New Year’s Day are sketched. In the left-hand bottom corner is some kadomatsu, which is usually set up on both sides of the entrance to a house. This is a New Year’s decoration made of pine boughs, bamboo stalks and Japanese apricot tree branches, symbolizing longevity, prosperity and constancy, respectively.
Two wooden boards sticking out from both sides of the print are upper halves of battledore bats. Women and girls go out to play a game of battledore and shuttlecock during the New Year holidays. The bats used by high-class people were very decorative.
The one on the left is painted with a picture of bamboo and the one on the right, a famous kabuki actor. A shuttlecock struck by a player is flying in the air.
Another outdoor sport enjoyed by men and boys was kite-flying. Hiroshige has depicted a few kites flying in the air.
The highest and nearest is a footman-shaped kite called yakko. This type of kite-flying was very popular among lower-class warriors and townspeople because they could obtain a feeling of superiority over higher-class warriors as their kites flew over their heads.
In the centre of the picture, beyond the moat, stands the residence of an important lord, and two huge kadomatsu (pine trees) can be seen in front of its red-coloured gate. Beyond this residence is the residential district for warriors. Among them stand a few imposing fire watchtowers. The shogun instructed some of the important lords to maintain three mansions separately in the city so that when one was destroyed by fire they could use another one.