Yatsuhashi Eight-section Bridge in Mikawa Province, from the series Famous Bridges of the Provinces

This print depicts the eight-sectioned bridge across a bed of irises, for which Yatsuhashi, or Eight Bridges, is known. Yatsuhashi was also an utamakura 歌枕, a place with poetic associations. Here, the reference is to a famous episode in the late 9th-century classical text Tales of Ise. Interest in the subject resurged in the Edo period, particularly in the iris paintings of the Rimpa school. Left to imagine the appearance of this famous place, Hokusai demonstrated his creative exploration of form by depicting a bridge that zigzags and undulates across the expanse of the composition.