Shitaya Hirokoji, from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)”

From Hiroshige's final major series—"One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," published by Uoya Eikichi in the years before his death in 1858—this print depicts Shitaya Hirokoji, a broad commercial avenue in the Shitaya district of northern Edo, now the Ueno area. Hirokoji, meaning "wide lane," was a designated open space that served as a marketplace and pedestrian gathering point. Hiroshige uses the vertical oban format to construct his characteristic tall composition: a foregrounded shop sign, awning, or vendor's stall anchors the lower register while the avenue recedes into a middle ground of pedestrians and storefronts. The series employed bold cropping and a newly developed pigment opacity influenced in part by Western compositional conventions, and made conspicuous use of Prussian blue alongside traditional mineral and vegetable pigments. Seasonal cues—bare branches or the quality of diffuse winter light—locate the scene in a particular time of year. The print participates in the urban meisho-e tradition, cataloging the commercial geography of Edo for a metropolitan audience already familiar with its streets.