Vintage Japanese woodblock print In the tradition of the great 19th-century ukiyo-e masters - Hiroshige's Toranomon Gate

"Aoi Slope outside Toranomon Gate" (original title: 虎の門外あふひ坂) is a woodblock print by the Japanese painter and illustrator Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) produced in December 1857.

This X-shaped nocturnal composition is bathed in the soft light of a crescent moon, partially hidden by gray clouds, through which birds fly. On the horizon, between pine trees and hackberry trees, stand the buildings of the Kotohira-gū shrine, located on the lands of the Kyōgoku daimyo, of the city of Marugame on the island of Shikoku, open to the public on the thirteenth of each month. In the center right of the image, a wide waterfall gushes from the outer moat of the palace, while to the left stretches the slope of Aoizaka, traversed by several pilgrims and two street vendors with their portable shops. One of the shops displays the inscription nihachi ("two for eight"), promoting buckwheat noodles for sixteen mon, while the other offers ōhira shippoku (noodles accompanied by fried eggs, mushrooms, water chestnuts, or fish cakes). In the lower left section are two cats and, as the main anecdotal element, two apprentice craftsmen practicing after emerging from a purifying bath, covered in loincloths and carrying lanterns. This attractive composition is one of the few from the winter season that evokes the ethnographic aspect of the landscape.