The Plum Garden at Omurai; Flower Siblings at Famous Places

The setting in this uchiwa-e (rigid fan print) design by Hiroshige is the Omurai plum garden behind the Azuma Shrine in the south-east corner of Edo's north-easterly Mukojima district. The courtesans in the foreground are well wrapped on the cold winter's day. Behind them, across a stretch of water, are small figures climbing up a grassy hill. This is, in fact, an artificial replica of Mount Fuji, one of many such constructions dotted about Edo in Hiroshige's time. The first of these was built in Takada in the western part of the city in 1779. It was the brainchild of a follower of a popular religious cult whose worship focused on Mount Fuji and for whom the climb to its 3,776-metre summit was the ultimate undertaking. This journey was more than could by managed by the young, the infirm and the elderly, and it was for their benefit that miniature versions of Mount Fuji like this one were built. The slip of folded paper in the hair of the woman on the left is a talisman from the Myogi Shrine, located in the grounds of the nearby Kameido Tenjin Shrine. Talismans from the Myogi Shrine were believed to provide protection against thunder and lightning. They were obtainable on the first Rabbit Day of each month.