The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō

The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō (木曾街道六十九次, Kiso Kaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi) or Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Road, is a series of ukiyo-e works created by Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen. There are 71 total prints in the series (one for each of the 69 post stations and Nihonbashi; Nakatsugawa-juku has two prints).

The title page for the series of ukiyo-e prints.

The common name for the Kiso Kaidō is "Nakasendō" so the series is sometimes referred to as the Sixty-nine Stations of the Nakasendō. It is a follow up to Hiroshige's The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and he produced 47 of the prints, with Eisen being responsible for the rest.[1]

The series was published by Iseya Rihei (Kinjudō) from c.1834-1842.[2]

The Nakasendō

The Nakasendō was one of the Five Routes constructed under Tokugawa Ieyasu, a series of roads linking the historical capital of Edo with the rest of Japan. The Nakasendō connected Edo with the then-capital of Kyoto. It was an alternate route to the Tōkaidō and travelled through the central part of Honshū, thus giving rise to its name, which means "Central Mountain Road". Along this road, there were sixty-nine different post stations, which provided stables, food, and lodging for travelers.

Prints by Eisen

Ukiyo-e print of Gōdo-juku, by Eisen

Eisen produced the first 11 prints of the series, from Nihonbashi to Honjō-shuku, stretching from Tokyo to Saitama Prefecture. His prints from Gunma Prefecture include Kuragano-shuku, Itahana-shuku and Sakamoto-shuku. Representing Nagano Prefecture, he made prints of Kutsukake-shuku, Oiwake-shuku, Iwamurada-shuku, Shiojiri-shuku, Narai-juku, Yabuhara-juku, Nojiri-juku and Magome-juku. His last two prints, Unuma-juku and Gōdo-juku represent Gifu Prefecture. After that, Hiroshige took over production of the series.

Prints by Hiroshige

Kanō-juku
ArtistHiroshige

Hiroshige's prints start in Gunma Prefecture and include Shinmachi-shuku, Takasaki-shuku, Annaka-shuku and Matsuida-shuku. His prints that reflect Nagano Prefecture] are Karuisawa-shuku, Otai-shuku, from Shionada-juku to Shimosuwa-shuku, from Seba-juku to Niekawa-juku, from Miyanokoshi-juku to Suhara-juku, Midono-juku and Tsumago-juku. His prints from Gifu Prefecture include Ochiai-juku to Ōta-juku, Kanō-juku, and from Mieji-juku to Imasu-juku. His last ten prints, from Kashiwabara-juku to Ōtsu-juku are all in Shiga Prefecture.

Tabulation of series

The following tabulation is ordered by image number in series of images available at Commons, from Kisokaido01 to Kisokaido69. This numbering may or may not be in correct order of stations.

Woodcut printStation No and English nameJapaneseTransliteration
1
Itabashi
2
Warabi
3
Urawa
4
Omiya
5
Ageo
6
Okegawa
7
Konosu
8
Kumagai
9
Fukaya
10
Honjo
11
Shinmachi
12
Kuragano
13
Takasaki
14
Itahana
15
Annaka
16
Matsuida
17
Sakamoto
18
Karuisawa
19
Kutsukake
20
Oiwake
21
Otai
22
Iwamurada
23
Shionada
24
Yawata
25
Mochizuki
26
Ashida
27
Nagakubo
28
Wada
29
Shimosuwa
30
Otai
31
Seba
32
Motoyama
33
Niekawa
34
Narai
35
Yabuhara
36
Miyanokoshi
37
Fukushima
38
Agematsu
39
Suhara
40
Nojiri
41
Midono
42
Tsumago
43
Magome
44
Ochiai
45
Nakatsugawa
46
Ōi
47
Ōkute
48
Hosokute
49
Mitake
50
Fushimi
51
Ōta
52
Unuma
53
Kanō
54
Gōdo
55
Mieji
56
Akasaka
57
Tarui
58
Sekigahara
59
Imasu
60
Kashiwabara
61
Samegai
62
Banba
63
Toriimoto
64
Takamiya
65
Echigawa
66
Musa
67
Moriyama
68
Kusatsu
69
Ōtsu

See also

References

Notes
  1. Hiroshige - Kisokaido. www.hiroshige.org.uk. Accessed November 1, 2017.
  2. Forrer
  • Matthi Forrer, Hiroshige. Prestel. 2011 (trans. Peter Mason) ISBN 9783791345406
  • Basil Stewart, A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter. Dover Books on Oriental Art, 1979 (1st ed. 1922), pp. 98–107.
  • Gordon Friese, Keisai Eisen - Utagawa Hiroshige. Die 69 Stationen des Kisokaido: Eine vollständige Serie japanischer Farbholzschnitte und ihre Druckvarianten. Unna, 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809261-3-3
  • Sebastian Izzard, Hiroshige: Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido.George Braziller, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8076-1593-5
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