Descending Geese at Katata, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa

Hiroshige’s successor and son-in-law, Hiroshige II, adhered closely to his teacher’s style in landscape composition. Space is divided into clear foreground, middle ground, and background planes, linked by the implied diagonals of birds, trees, and shoreline. One common element in various versions of Descending Geese at Katata is the distinctive Ukimidō floating temple, the small pavilion on the lake. One still exists today at Mangetsu-ji temple in Katata.

In the original Eight Views of Xiāoxiāng, descending geese carried many meanings related to the themes of exile and separation from civilization: the calls of the geese evoked the melancholy cries of displaced people; the birds migrating suggested scholars communicating by letters over long distances. In Japanese prints, the descending geese became more of a seasonal symbol of autumn migration than a political symbol.