20th Station: Mariko

In this quaint scene, two travelers have stopped at a roadside teahouse and are being served by a woman with a child on her back while another traveler has re-embarked on his journey. The gentlemen at the teahouse are probably enjoying grated yam broth (tororo-jiru), the local specialty, while they relax and admire the green leaves and plum flowers of early spring. In contrast to the charming little teahouse with its lovely trees, the rest of the landscape is rather barren and overshadowed by a gray hill tinted with brown rising in the distance.

Matsuo Basho, the most famous haiku poet in Japan, praised this scenery and the grated yam broth in one of his haiku poems:

ume wakana
Mariko no yado no
tororo jiru

plum blossoms and fresh leaves
the yam soup at the lodging
at Mariko station

Basho wrote this haiku for his disciple, Kawai Otokuni, who was about to start for Edo from Otsu in February 1691. The teahouse for yam soup is still in operation today.