Mariko: Famous tea shop (Mariko meibutsu chamise)

This is part of Hiroshige’s “53 stations of the Tokaido” it shows a famous tea shop. It tries to create space between the hills in the back with the teashop in the foreground but it is limited and feels narrow as though you only have a limited perspective on the piece, head on. people seem to catch most of the attention, taking away from the landscape. The background is second to the people. Although the landscape is not the focal point, the people in the piece seem “alive” as they are just going on with their everyday lives and Hiroshige is capturing a single moment of the day.