The 40th view of Utagawa Hiroshige’s “100 Famous Views of Edo” is Sekiguchi riverside Haseo-an Tsubakiyama. Here is the original picture.
The title of the picture is a little difficult to understand, but ‘Sekiguchi riverside’ means the area around the intake weir on the Kanda River near the Sekiguchi area of Bunkyo Ward today. Or perhaps it was the weir that gave the area its name. The next part, “Haseo-an”, comes from the fact that Matsuo Basho, famous Haiku poet, had a house in this area (Basho -> Haseo), and the last part, “Tsubakiyama”, is a nickname that comes from the fact that there were many camellias growing wild here. The “Chinzan-so (Chinese style reading of Tsubakiyama-so)” villa that Aritomo Yamagata built here in the Meiji period is now a luxury hotel that has inherited the name.
If the flow of the Kanda River hasn’t changed much over the years, then judging by its shape, it’s probably around here. Here’s a shot of the modern landscape.
It is a few minutes’ walk west from Edogawabashi along the banks of the Kanda River. For those of you who are used to getting around the city by car, it may be easier to explain that it is around the Waseda exit/entrance of the Shuto Expressway.
The idyllic rural landscape of the original painting has now been transformed into a densely populated urban area of residential and mid-rise office buildings, stretching from Bunkyo Ward to Shinjuku Ward. And the cherry blossom flavor is much stronger than in the original painting.
There are beautiful rows of cherry trees along both banks of the Kanda River in this area, and they were in full bloom at the time of my visit. The flowers were beginning to fall onto the river surface in a beautiful way.
There were quite a few people there to watch, but unlike the major spots like Chidorigafuchi or Ueno, I can walk around at a relaxed pace, so I can enjoy a pleasant cherry blossom viewing while taking photos of the ‘100 Views’.
The locations where the “100 Views” photos were taken
![広重名所江戸百景 望月義也コレクション [ 望月義也 ]](https://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/book/cabinet/0032/9784772610032.jpg?_ex=128x128)
