Shinkiro no zu (Shinkiro Palace in Mirage)

Although Hiroshige is best known for his landscape and bird-and-flower prints, he also produced a number of caricatures throughout his career, including this work, which is regarded as one of his representative examples of the genre.
The title Shingiro 深妓楼 is a playful parody of shinkiro 蜃気楼, the Japanese word for “mirage,” traditionally associated with the mythical clam that conjures phantom towers and palaces from its breath. Hiroshige cleverly transforms this legend into a humorous vision of a deep-sea pleasure district, populated by fish-headed men and women and enclosed within a clam-shell-shaped frame. The vapor exhaled by the clam is depicted within the shell as swirling pink vapor, evoking the mysterious phenomenon of a mirage.
In his book Utagawa Hiroshige (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 1970), Suzuki Juzo discusses this work and suggests that it parodies the temporary pleasure quarters of Fukagawa. One of the brothels depicted here bears a signboard reading “Yamatoya” 大和屋, corresponding to the name of a brothel known to have existed in Nakamachi, Fukagawa, one of the areas where temporary pleasure quarters, known as karitaku 仮宅, were permitted to operate outside Yoshiwara following fires.