The 69 stations

The Eisen and Hiroshige print series

The Kisokaido series was started to be published in 1835 and has 71 prints: The 69 stations + the starting point Nihon-bashi + the 45th station (Natsugawa) for which 2 prints were created. Eisen made 24 prints and Hiroshige 47.

For the print commentaries, I followed Sebastian Izzards's book "The 69 stations of the Kisokaido" published by Brazilier, New York City in 2007. I have modified some of these commentaries and have cited sources whenever I could.

Following the success of the series "53 stations of the Tokaido" published in 1831-1832, Takenouchi Magohachi owner of Hoeido publishing house, asked Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) to do a series on the Nakasendo-Kisokaido road. Eisen started the series, creating the prints following the order of the stations, starting with the beginning Nihon-bashi until station Honjo #10. Then it seems he got bored and worked only on the station he liked. The title of the series is not yet set: the first print is titled "Kisokaido tsuzuki no ichi" (First print of a picture group from the Kiso road), 15 prints are titled "Kisokaido" (Kiso road); 4 prints are titled "Kisoji no eki" (stations of the along the Kiso river) and 2 prints are titled "Kisokaido dochu" (Along the Kisokaido road). The last two Eisen prints (Itahana and Sakamoto) are not signed and are attributed to Eisen, even if the titles are in Hiroshige's handwriting and carry the definitive title of the series "Kisokaido rokujukutsu gi no uchi" (The sixty-nine stations of the Kisokaido) similar to the title of the famous Tokaido series.

We do not know why Eisen stopped working on this series. Possibly he was bored with such landscape series and wanted to go back to beautiful girls designs and to depict life in the red light districts. Or maybe he was fired by the publisher as Eisen was known for his laziness, his difficult character and his love of drinks. In any case, Hiroshige was hired in 1835-1836 and started by completing the two prints left unfinished by Eisen. Then he created station Takasaki (#13), the only one with a single Hoeido publisher seal.

Hoeido must have faced financial difficulties and sold part of the publishing rights to the publishing house Kinjudo managed by Iseya Rihei. Three prints (Karuizawa #18, Fukushima #37 and Toriimoto #63) bear the seals of both publishers. But Hoeido could not meet his financial obligations and sold his remaining shares to Kinjudo in 1836 . Hiroshige then worked on 23 prints (his best ones) until 1838, stopped for three or four years and resumed work in 1842 to complete the series with the remaining 20 prints (not as good as the earlier ones)

In subsequent editions, Eisen signature and Hoeido seal were removed and only Kinjudo's seal appears. But in 1843 Kinjudo sold the series to another publisher, Yamadaya Shotaro and his seal appears in later editions.

Keizai Eisen (1790-1848)

Keisai Eisen was born in Edo (Tokyo) in a samurai family named Matsumoto, linked to the Ikeda clan. His father died when he was 20. Since his samurai stipend was not enough to feed his family, he renounced his samurai status (which did not allow hm to work) and started writing, mostly romance type novels under different names. The name Keizai Eisen appeared first in 1816.

At the same time, he went to an art school and worked in Kikugawa Eizan's (1787-1867) workshop where he learnt about printing and beautiful girl (bijin) as well as landscape designs. He was quickly successful as he mixed beautiful ladies in front of superb landscapes with nice colors. It is when he was at the height of success that Heoido asked him to illustrate the Kisokaido series.

Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Ando Hiroshige, birth name Andō Tokutaro, was born in Edo where his father, a low ranking samurai was in charge of a firefighting brigade. Hiroshige's father transferred this hereditary office to his son shortly before his death in 1809 when Hiroshige was 14. Income from this charge allowed him to indulge his passion: drawing. At first, he joined the workshop of Okajima Rinsai (1791-1865) of the Kano school, then tried the workshop of Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) and is in the end accepted in the workshop of Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828) where he learned to draw landscapes. In 1812, he was given his artist name of Utagawa Hiroshige and when Toyohiro died in 1828, he took the workshop over under the name of Utagawa Toyohiro II, doing mostly actor, warrior and "bijin" (beautiful women) portraits. But landscapes were more in demand and in 1831, he did a first landscape prints series: Famous Places of the Eastern Capital (Toto Meisho).

Every year, the Shogun sent horses as gifts to the Emperor and an official delegation was sent to Kyoto. In 1832, Hiroshige accompanied the delegation to Kyoto and along the way, realized many sketches and drawings. Upon his return to Edo, he proposed to his publisher Senkakudo to realize a 55 prints series to depict the Tokaido road. But Senkakudo could not advance the money and transferred this proposal to another Publisher Hoeido who gave its name to this first series. It was a huge success and later Hiroshige did several other Tokaido series, but none reached the same artistic level.

In 1835, Hoeido asked him to take over the Kisokaido series which Eisen had started. Hiroshige did not walk the Kisokaido road himself. He relied on different sources, previous series and travel guides published between 1805 and 1835. The source he used most is a 7-volumes book titled "Illustrated album of the Kiso road" (Kisoji Meisho Zue", writen by Rito Akisato, illustrated by Nishimura Chuwa and published in 1805. A smaller, cheaper edition was published in 1814 and this second edition seems to be the one which inspired Hiroshige. This is a wonderful book, giving advice to travellers with very detailed black-and-white prints. I used several of these prints (thanks to Saitama University Library) to illustrate a few of the following pages ((Nihonbashi No.00, Mieiji No.55, Toriimoto No.63,.....)

Hiroshige realized many other landscape series depicting Edo and all of Japan. His last series of the 100 famous views of Edo (Edo Hyakkei) was published in 1857-1858. In total, Hiroshige realized over 5400 prints.

List of the 69 stations of the Kisokaidô

The list of the 69 stations of the Kisokaidô (70 prints including starting point) with mention of the artist in the Hoeido dated 1840, with Eisen (英泉) and Hiroshige (広重) as artists.

An extra page has been added between stations 58 & 59 to tell the story of the Battle of Sekigahara.

The word 宿 shuku (or juku) means post station.

Ai no shuku

There were unofficial stations named "ai no shuku" (間の宿) or "mid-stations" when the distance between two stations was too great or before difficult passes. Because they were not officially designated rest areas, travelers along the roads were not allowed to stay in these post stations.

There were three "ai no shuku" or mid stations on Nakasendo:

• Fukiage-shuku (茂吹上宿): between Konosu (7) and Kumagai (8)

• Motai-shuku (田井宿): between Mochizuki (25) and Ashida (26)

• Shinkano (新加納宿): between Unuma (52) and Kano (53)

Honjin et Waki-honjin

The honjin (本陣) or official lodgings were initially places from where generals directed the troops during a battle. They were then temporary structures, but they evolved into more permanent structures where lords or shogun representatives would stay when travelling. Many honjin were in fact the personal residences of the town head. As such, they had to welcome and accommodate important visitors and other officials. In exchange, they were granted special privileges and benefits. Ordinary travellers, even very rich ones could not stay in honjin.

Secondary lodgings or waki-honjin ( 脇本陣 ) were reserved by the lords' retinues and officers.

Ordinary travelers stopped in inns or hatago ( 旅籠 ) which were also serving meals.

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