A visual motif in the *yamato-e やまと絵 tradition, depicting the landscape of the Uji 宇治 river and its bridge. Famous for its wickerwork fishing traps ajiro 網代 which provided hiuo 氷魚, a kind of trout, for the imperial table. According to both Kinpishō 禁秘抄 (A Summary of Palace Secrets, ca. 1221) and Kokin chomonjū 古今著聞集 (A Collection of Things Heard, Ancient and Modern, 1254), the wickerwork was depicted on the back of the northern side of the "Rough Ocean" sliding door paintings *araumi-no-shōji 荒海障子 in the emperor's principal residence, the Seiryōden 清涼殿, of Kyoto Gosho 京都御所.
Throughout the Heian and Kamakura periods it was a popular theme in *meisho-e 名所絵 and can be seen on the door paintings of Byōdōin *Hōōdō 平等院鳳凰堂 (1053) in Uji itself. In the Muromachi period it appears in the fifth scroll of Ishiyamadera engi emaki 石山寺縁起絵巻 (The Illustrated Scrolls of the Founding of Ishiyamadera) and the second scroll of the Ashibiki emaki 足曳絵巻. The motif was incorporated as an element of screens depicting willows-over-a-bridge-with-a-waterwheel, ryūkyō mizu-guruma-zu 柳橋水車図, popular in the Momoyama period, and finally found its way into the decorative arts. In the Edo period, the Uji bridge appears in Kusumi Morikage's 久隅守景 Kamo no keiba Ujibashi-zu 賀茂競馬・宇治橋図 (Screen of The Kamo Festival Horse Races and Uji Bridge); Ōkura Shūkokan 大倉集古館, Tokyo.