Kisokaidô: Okegawa - Station 06

The station of Okegawa was famous for the Kano Tenjin Shrine nearby and for its heated thermal baths that were said to cure a number of diseases. Located at 40km/30mi from Nihonbashi, many travellers would make their last stop here. In 1840, Okegawa had 340 inns, 36 palanquins stations and over 20 brothels. Despite these urban attractions, Eisen chose to illustrate a simple autumnal scene on in the countryside. A traveller (1) approaches a peasant woman (2) threshing wheat in front of her house. Inside the house, her husband (3) lights his pipe at the hearth. A string of tobacco leaves (4) is drying under the eaves. A horseman rides along the road as it zigzags over the flat plain.

The first edition is the only one which is signed. In later printings both the signature and the upper Takenouchi seals are lost. Also in the first edition, the woman’s face had a brown block under her brow in order to give depth and this is omitted in later versions. As printing progressed, the stripes on her robe disappeared, the pale green in the foreground was replaced by a darker green, the color of the horizon changed from purple to red and the sky changed from red to blue.

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