Kisokaidô Road

This site is dedicated to the 69 stations of the Kisokaidô (or Nakasendô) road, one of the five major roads in Edo Japan (1603-1868). The French version can be accessed at www.kisokaido-road.fr

Ce site (en anglais) est consacré aux 69 étapes de la route du Kisokaidô (ou Nakasendô) au Japon, une des cinq routes majeures de l’ère Edo (1603-1868). La version en français est accessible à www.kisokaido-road.fr

In the following pages, each station is detailed through the Hiroshige and Eisen's woodblock prints as well as more recent prints from Kawase Hasui, Kasamatsu Shiro or Nishijima Katsuyuki among others. Old photos and recent pictures taken between 2000 and 2012 are also shown for comparison purpose.

The unique purpose of the site is to educate and entertain. There is no commercial intent and neither the prints or the pictures are for sale. There is little original contents, with most of the information coming from books, catalogues or internet websites. I have tried as much as possible to indicate the sources (see page References), but this has not always been possible. If you see pictures or reproductions where you would like the source to be added, please contact me.

Any mistake or error is mine. Please let me know if you spot any, along with your suggested correction.

Each station features a print from Keisai Eisen or Ando Hiroshige from the Kisokaido series (1835), pictures from Meiji Japan, recent pictures and prints from the 20th century as I tried to recreate the atmosphere of the old Kisokaido.

The old road is nearly gone superseded by modern roads, but a few sections still have a feel of old samurai Japan, thanks to restored buildings and old paving.

The Kisokaido road, also called Nakasendo road is 540km/330 mi long and can be walked in 2 to 3 weeks. The really interesting part is the one in the Kiso river valley between station 29 and station 55 in Nagano and Gifu préfectures.

The documents on this site come from my trips to Japan or from my own prints collection. But there are many coming from the internet, translated from Japanese, French or German. For the Kisokaido series, I have chosen either original prints (mostly from the British Museum collection, with thanks) or when the quality was too poor, modern recut prints, mostly from the Kyoto Hanga edition under supervision from Narazaki Muneshige which is the most faithful to the first edition. When there were significant differences between editions, mostly due to publishing history, I have tried to follow the first edition.

Regarding the modern prints, please visit my other site: (work in progress)

You can also contact me at estampe.japonaise@gmail.com and I welcome your comments and suggestions. I hope you will have as much pleasure in wandering through this site as I had making it...........

I also would like to thank my wife and children for their patience and understanding as well as my uncle Claude Amsterdamsky for his comments.

Serge Astieres - Avril 2014 - December 2014 (reviewed 2021)

ps. Please visit my other website on Japanese traditional theater kabuki through the prints of Ôta Masamitsu: www.otamasamitsu.com

Next page: Introduction