One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.81Ox Town at Takanawa

In the Edo period, a wooden gate was built by the shogunate at Takanawa just before the Tokaido Highway reached Shinagawa station in order to check travellers and horses with goods on their backs travelling in and out of Edo city. Travellers leaving from Edo were usually seen off by their relatives and friends at this gate.
In 1634, labourers who owned oxen were brought here from Kyoto to assist in transporting materials necessary to build a small temple to install the image of Iyeyasu Tokugawa on the grounds of Zojoji Temple. The oxcarts carried stone and wood from the shore at Takanawa to the nearby temple grounds. Two years later, more labourers who owened oxen were brought to Edo from Kyoto by order of the shogunate and engaged in the construction of an earthen bridge across the moat outside of Ichigaya Gate of Edo castle.
The labourers, together with the oxen, were allowed to remain here afterwards, and therefore the place acquired the name of Ushimachi, or Ox Town.
In this print, Hiroshige has depicted a scene in which Ox Town is seen in the wake of heavy showers, with a rainbow appearing majestically in the background.
In the foreground is part of an oxcart. Behind the wheel are two dogs, one of which is biting the loosened rope of a straw sandal. Nearby are slices of half-eaten watermelon, indicating the lingering summer heat.
A few sailboats are pulling out to sea under full sail. Off Shibaura seashore are seen moored a great number of sailboats with their sails lowered. A few large earthen breakwater-like walls seen in the sea were actually six batteries, called Shinagawa Daiba, built by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1854 to defend Edo city from an attack by the United States squadron led by Commodore Perry. The earth used to build the batteries was produced by tearing down the eastern part of Gotenyama Hill at Shinagawa station.