Local Specialty Teahouse, Mariko, from the series the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Hoeido edition)

The tea shop sign says “Our Famous Tororo-jiru,” and Maruko was famous for its tororo-jiru, or grated yam soup. The poet Basho even composed a haiku about this place: ume wakana / maruko no shuku no / tororo-jiru (young plum leaves / the station at Maruko / grated yam soup). Two men are depicted eating tororo-jiru, it is thought they are Yajirobei and Kitahachi from the comic travel tale Tokaidochu Hizakurige by Jippensha Ikku (translated into English as The Shank’s Mare).