Shosai

A hanaike formed from a curved section of bamboo, an alert frog pausing watchfully by the hollowed flower reservoir. The intricate markings of his ridged body are detailed in lacquer

Signed with the inscription:
天橋住人、戊寅春、松斎明刀 Amanohashi j–unin, Tsuchinoe-tora haru, Shōsai meitō.

[Carved vividly by Sh–osai, spring in the year of Tshuchinoto-tora (Showa 13 = 1938), a resident of Amahashi (Amanohashi)]

Ama(no)hashi was a long pathway which led to Fukuroi, the 27th station on the Tōkaido road, where a teahouse provided respite for travellers at the desolate and windy spot. It was eternalised by Ando Hiroshige in his series Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi, with a scene of travellers resting beneath an ancient pine and warming themselves by a fire where an enormous kettle is heating, farmers and the sea visible in the background.