One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.92Mokuboji Temple, river inlet and vegetable garden

On the east bank of the Sumida River, opposite a place called Hashiba, was an inlet called Uchikawa, and on its south bank was Mokuboji Temple, noted for a legendary boy named Umewakamaru who was said to be buried here. Legend has it that the 12 year old boy was deceived by a slave trader in Kyoto, was brought here by the trader, and finally died from illness on March 15, 976. A Buddhist priest who deplored the child’s death buried him, built a mound over the grave and planted a willow tree. Shortly after this, the boy’s mother came here looking for him, only to find out about his death. She was so heartbroken that she threw herself into a nearby pond .
This sad story was adopted in noh and kabuki plays and is popularly known among the Japanese. It is a custom in the noh world to perform a play depicting the Umewakamaru story in March each year. Mokuboji Temple was built beside the mound, and a great number of Edo people assembled at the temple on March 15th and held a Buddhist memorial service for Umewakamaru by chanting loudly a prayer to Amitabha (Buddha). In front of the temple gate was a restaurant famous for dishes featuring taro and corbicula (a kind of shellfish). It can be seen on the right in this print. Two ladies who have come by boat on the Sumida River are about to enter the restaurant by the back entrance.
The water in this print is an inlet of the Sumida River. Beyond the inlet in the distance was a palace and a vegetable garden. Frequently, the shoguns came to this neighbourhood for hawking and stayed at the palace, eating produce grown in the garden. Melon and watermelon were donated to Edo castle.
This area offered visitors splendid scenery of trees, green fields and the river and its inlets.