Kisokaidô: Kumagaya - Station 08

This post station was named after Kumagaya Jiro Naozane, a warrior who served under Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), first shogun of the Kamakura period (1185-1333). He had a fief in this part of the country and it was here that he retired after the Battle of Ichinotani in 1184. Eisen’s view of the station shows a wealthy traveller (1) arriving by palanquin at a wayside restaurant strategically placed at a fork in the road. He is followed by a servant carrying his goods and greeted by a wayfarer on foot. The restaurant advertises ankoro (2), a local sweetmeat and udon, thick Japanese noodles. A waitress (3) serves tea to a traveller dressed in blue having a smoke and to a packhorse man preparing to do likewise. Behind them, the horse also rests feeding from his nosebag.The horse’s girth (4) is emblazoned with the “Take” emblem of the publisher Hoeido (for Takenouchi, his owner). On the right, a sign (5) showns the way to Oshi Gyoda, a small castle town known for its Japanese-style socks and in the other direction, the next station of Fukaya 8km/5 mi away. The road (6) stretches uphill onto the Hatcho embankment, built in 1574 against flooding from Arakawa river (7) seen in the distance. On the far right, a shelter with a statue of Jizo (8) erected to protect the souls of those lost in the floods. The head of the statue is protected by a faded red cloth and several sticks of incense are burning in front of it.

Here we have an early impression, recognized by the brown gradation of the road, replaced later by a grey colour and by an additional brown block used on the waitress’s face. Later the Takenouchi emblem (竹) on the horse’s girth is replaced by the Kinjudo emblem (林). The blue gets darker and the color of the saddlecloth also changes to gray.

(Source: The 69 stations of the Kisokaido, Sebastian Izzard, Brazillier 2008)