Title : The Famous Teahouse at Mariko (Station #21)

Artist : Utagawa Hiroshige

Date : c. 1833 - 1834

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : This print was conserved with the support of the Robert F. Lange Foundation. Hiroshige produced one series of prints dedicated solely to the adventures of Yaji and Kita in Adventures Down the Tökaidö, but he also placed characters from this story and hints that allude to it in prints from other series. In this print the teahouse owner's wife is modeled after the woman who serves at a similar Mariko establishment in Adventures Down the Tökaidö. In the book this woman "has tousled hair and an unweaned baby on her back, and drags her straw sandals as she walks." Here she is wearing wooden clogs, but we can also see similarities. In Adventures Down the Tökaidö the woman has such an intense altercation with her husband that Yaji and Kita are driven away without eating their meal. We can, therefore, deduce that the two travelers seated here are not modeled precisely on the bawdy protagonists. The local specialty featured at this teahouse is tororojiru (yam paste soup). Mariko is located approximately five miles southwest of modern day Shizuoka City, about three miles from Suruga Bay.

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