Title unknown (Teahouse beside the Hirakata-wan Bay, Kanazawa Hakkei [Eight Veiws of Kanazawa])) 

This is Kanazawa Hakkei, an area well known for its depiction in Utagawa Hiroshige’s Seto no Shugetsu (Autumn Moon at Seto), which dates from the Edo Period (1603–1868). In Hiroshige’s work, the broad Hirakata Bay and Nojima island are illuminated by the harvest moon. When photographic technology was imported into Japan, famous sites like this began attracting the attention of photographers, who hoped their work might supplant ukiyo-e and woodblock prints. The building visible here is a teahouse that had existed in Hirakata Bay since the Edo Period. Two pine trees can be seen growing on the site. Both are discernible in Hiroshige’s picture as well, and so perhaps they were a symbol of the teahouse. Such sites were photographed not only by Shimooka Renjo, but also by foreign photographers like Felice Beato who came to Japan in the Meiji Period (1868–1912).
(OSAWA Sayoko)