Okitsu

The station of Okitsu along the Tōkaidō Roadway is near Tago-no-ura, a site of great natural beauty. Here, Hiroshige shows the town and temple in the distance with fish nets hung to dry in the foreground. Kunisada illustrated a female traveler receiving a massage from a blind masseur. Taga-no-ura was the subject of a poem by Yamabe Akahito, an eighth century courtier who was later lauded as one of Japan's Thirty-six Immortal Poets. Here, the masseur may be reciting Akahito's poem for the enjoyment of the woman: When from Tago's coast's barrier shadow I emerge, I am startled by Mount Fuji's lofty peak Clad in newly fallen snow.