The old itinerant monk in "Oi," the 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here, is admiring a gushing spring on a forested hillside. Apparently impressed by the joyous flow of water, he is speaking to a local temple apprentice who is pointing away to the right, possibly to another spring nearby.

The village of Oi has been known since time immemorial for its abundance of water sources, just as Togoshi (featured in this column last month) was known for its aridity. However Togoshi lies inland on the Meguro Upland, whereas nearby Oi is on the upland's eastern edge, where many springs well up through the terraced ground. Also close to the sea, Oi was long a good place from which to gather shellfish, and it has supported human habitation since the late Jomon Period (5th-4th c. B.C.).

The first mention of Oi appears in a section of the Taiho Code of 701, where it is described as a post station in the province of Musashi (present-day Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, and part of Kanagawa Prefecture). This is sure evidence that even by then, Oi had grown large enough to supply horses, provisions and other needs for official travelers. The highway they took, connecting the old capitals of Nara and Kyoto to northern Japan, is the ancient Tokaido.