One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.84‘Old man’s teahouse’ at Meguro

Yodobashi Terrace is a triangular-shaped piece of land lying between the Kanda River to the north and the Meguro River to the south. The southwestern part of Edo city was later developed here. The terrace had many slopes on its southwest side, which overlooked a wide expanse of paddy fields stretching from the foot of the terrace and offered fine views of Mt. Fuji in the distance. Hiroshige depicts one of the slopes, known as Chayazaka, on which stood only a teahouse. This place was visited very frequently by shoguns because the area had very good hawking grounds and was located not so far from Edo castle. Whenever the shoguns came this way, they never failed to drop in at the teahouse to enjoy the magnificent views while drinking cups of tea. The teahouse was run by an elderly man named Hikoshiro and was alternatively nicknamed Jijiga chaya, meaning “old man’s teahouse”, by the third shogun, Iyemitsu, who liked the proprietor very much. Originally the elderly man was a farmer and came to the teahouse to serve tea to visitors only when he had spare time. In later years, when the 10th shogun, Iyeharu, visited the teahouse, the descendant of the man served him dumplings and dengaku (bean curd on a skewer), which he found very tasty. From that day forth, these dishes were served in addition to the cups of tea. In this print are depicted several sightseers, possibly from Edo city. They are admiring a magnificent view of Mt. Fuji standing above a red-coloured mist from the landing of the slope near the teahouse.