Traditional print depicting the serenity and balance of Japanese landscapes - Hiroshige's Mokubō-ji Temple and Uchigawa Bay

"Mokubō-ji Temple and Vegetable Fields in Uchigawa Bay" (original title: 木母寺内川御前栽畑) is a woodblock print by the Japanese painter and illustrator Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) produced in December 1857.

Uchigawa Bay, part of the Sumida River, is a central feature of this scene. Inland is the Mokubō-ji temple, erected in the 10th century as a burial mound for a young lord named Umewaka, whose tragedy inspired a Noh play called "Sumida-gawa." The temple is not depicted in this print; in its place, to the right, is the seafood restaurant Uehan, already depicted by Hiroshige in his Views of Famous Restaurants in Edo, but in a wintry setting and from a different perspective. The temple, restaurant, and surrounding gardens are popular tourist attractions, as evidenced by the two elegant ladies disembarking their boat and heading toward the establishment. The garden on the left, called Gozensaihata ("honorable market garden"), is cultivated by local fishermen and offers a variety of vegetables intended for the shogun, whose restaurant Tokugawa Iesada visited a month before the print's publication. This may explain why Hiroshige chose this composition, in keeping with the series' aim of introducing new products to the public.