One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.96Horie and Nekozane

The area where Horie and Nekozane villages were located was lowland, east of and near the mouth of the Old Tone River facing Edo Bay. When Iyeyasu Tokugawa was establishing himself in Edo castle, the seat of the shogunate he founded, he realized the importance of securing salt supplies for Edo citizens. There were many fields which produced salt out of seawater along the shore of this area. The shogun decided to bring the salt to Edo city from Gyotoku, a salt-producing centre, on the east bank of the Old Tone River by way of water and ordered the construction of canals which extended from east to west, crossing the Old Tone and Naka rivers and ending at the Sumida River, which was found in the eastern section of the heart of the city.
This print shows a canal dividing the land. The left bank was called Horie village, meaning “canal”. It branched from the Old Tone River at a spot a little downstream of Gyotoku and was alternatively called the Sakai River. The right bank was called Nekozane village. In old times, this lowland was frequently washed over by tidal waves or tsunamis so, to combat this, villagers built near a village shrine a tall and strong bank and planted pine trees on it. Since then the tidal waves have never overflowed the bank. To express this happening, villagers said in Japanese “ne wo kosanu”, meaning “the waves do not overflow the roots of the pine trees anymore”. They shortened this to “nekozane” and gave this name to the village. Inhabitants of both villages were primarily engaged in fishing, and some of them took the fish they caught in the sea by boat to Edo city for sale.
The canal is probably linked with the Old Tone River at the far end. Two bare masts of boats moored on the river are seen in the distance.
In the foreground on the right, two villagers, possibly a couple, hold a long string which is attached to a special device called a musogaeshi for catching birds.
In the far distance, Mt. Fuji can be seen against the red evening sky.