Hamamatsu, which was a little more than nine miles from Mitsuke, was a busy town in Hiroshige's day and is a large city today, but Hiroshige chose to represent the station with a rural scene, in which a group of farmers are warming themselves around a bonfire. Both Hokusai and Hiroshige were apparently fond of bonfires, for they depicted them often. Here the smoke is the very life of the picture. The pipe-smoking man warming his rear, the man holding his palms to the fire, the girl carrying the baby (a Japanese rural version of the modern baby sitter), and the traveler glancing back all testify to Hiroshige’s appreciation for human movement and human feelings.