The setting of this scene is a honjin (literally, 'primary headquarters'), or an inn reserved for daimy__ō (feudal lord) and others of high rank. Every station had from fifty to two hundred inns, headed by one or more honjin, which offered the finest accommodations. Preparations are underway here for an early morning departure.

Adapted from

Anna McFarland, Ichiryusai Hiroshige: The Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido, Label text, 1986.