Mitsumata Wakarenofuchi, No. 57 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Here we look southwest toward Mount Fuji over the widest stretch of the Sumida River, a point where there is both a "fork" (Mitsumata) between the main channel and the Hakozaki Canal in the middle distance and a "dividing pool" (Wakarenofuchi) where tidewater and freshwater part. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this view is what is not visible but what could not have been absent from Hiroshige's mind. An eight-acre island called Nakazu had been constructed here in the early 1770s precisely where the boats and reeds are positioned. This "Middle Strand" (nakazu) soon became the new pleasure center of the city, with ninety-three teahouses, three bathhouses, and various restaurants. Destroyed in 1789, it was reclaimed by the Tokyo government in 1886.