Wright’s photograph shows a winding road lined with sinuous pine trees, the bark of their trunks crisply delineated by his lens. It is a striking view that evokes numerous scenes depicted in ukiyo-e prints.

Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando)
Yoshiwara: Mount Fuji at Left, No. 15, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido
1832-1834
Woodblock color print

In his Yoshiwara: Mount Fuji at Left, Station 15, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, Hiroshige depicts travelers on a narrow road through the lowlands where the Fuji, Oi, and Abe rivers run. Mount Fuji appears in the background on the left of the composition. In both the print and Wright’s photograph, a stone marker can be glimpsed at the side of the road. Markers established along the Tokaido Road displayed the distance between each post station and the Nihonbashi bridge in Edo (Tokyo). Built in 1603, the bridge was the starting point of all major routes that left Edo.