Judging from the series title for this print, Hiroshige intended to design twenty-eight images inspired by the moon. Today, only two designs are known, suggesting that he abandoned the idea shortly after beginning. For this image, Hiroshige was inspired by a poem originally published in the Wakan Ro_eishu_ (Anthology of Chinese and Japanese Poems for Recitation), compiled in the 11th century by the courtier Fujiwara Kinto_:

It is not unbearable to see maple leaves fall,

Scattering on the mass-covered ground.

It is unbearable to feel the wind grow chilly

And see the whole sky darkening.

(trans. by Yoko Woodson)