Kisokaidô: Agematsu - Station 38

Utagawa Hiroshige - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Agematsu (39th print) (Agematsu)

(Edition done in 1950's by Kyoto Hanga-in under the supervision of Narazaki Muneshige, the most faithful to the first edition)

Near Agematsu, just South of Fukushima was one of the road's most famous beauty spots : the Ono Falls. It was a magnificient sight with the water splashing on huge rocks, but today with the river constrained by flood controls, the deep channel in the rock is a mute testament to the river’s former power. The small shrine (1) erected to the spirits of the falls, perched on a rock facing it, is still there. Hiroshige took his composition from Katsushita Hokusai in his series of famous Waterfalls published in 1832-1833. Although the elements are the same: the bridge, the rocks, the shrine, the tourists, Hokusai's print with its portrait format insists on the sheer strength of the river’s flow while Hiroshige's print in its landscape format gives a totally different atmosphere to the print, especially with the addition of a woodcutter (2) walking away laden with brushwood without even looking at the Falls.

The first printing was sprayed with gofun (fine powder made of ground shells) to represent the splash of the falls, but this disappears in later printing and the yellowish gray rocks change to yellow.

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

Katsushita Hokusai - Ono-no-taki waterfall (1822)

The Kiso river as sketched by Hiroshige in a guide to Kisokaido (Kisoji Meisho zue) published in 1851 (Source Waseda University, Tokyo)

Ono no taki waterfall and its shrine in 1890

Ono no taki waterfall in 1880

Kisokaido road along the Kiso river ca.1880

Kisokaido road ca.1870

Kiso river in 1870 before the Nezame no toko gorge

And now ?

Near the town exit, the river enters a gorge named “nezame-no-toko” or “Wake-up bed” which is one of the highlights of the journey. The name comes from a local legend: A fisherman named Urashima Taro saw children playing with a turtle and rescued it. To thank him, the turtle took him to its underwater palace to meet with the King of the Sea. There he was welcomed and several days went by with parties and festivities. But the fisherman asked to come back to his home. The King gave him a box, telling him never to open it. When the fisherman came back, 300 years had gone by. He started to travel around the country and when he arrived at “Nezame-no-toko” the gorge reminded him of the undersea castle. He opened the box and started to grow old. And when he woke up, he was at Nezame-no-toko. This had only been a dream. A small shrine not far from the gorge has been built to honor his memory.

This section of the Kiso valley has always been an inspiration for photographers as soon as photography was introduced in Japan ca.1870. There are numerous pictures taken around 1870-1880 and the ones taken before the river flow was reduced give an idea of what the waterfall was like.

Agematsu was a large station with the main timber control office where woodcutters had to register. Timber from the Kiso Valley was (and still is) well appreciated for its quality and felling trees without licence was severely punished. There are the five traditional trees used in Japanese construction: Japanese cypress (hinoki), Japanese thuja (nezuko), hiba arborvitae (asunaro), Sawara cypress (sawara) and Japanese cedar cryptomeria (sugi). Logs were floated down the river to Nagoya, seat of the Owari clan. Perhaps due to the heavy presence of lumber, Agematsu has suffered many devastating fires, the latest one in 1950 which destroyed most of the town. In 1843, the town at 283km/177mi from Edo had over 2,000 inhabitants, one honjin, one waki-honjin and 35 inns. Today, it is still an important town in the valley with a train station and several furniture factories and cabinet makers.

The old Kisokaido has been widened for the modern traffic and the walk is between the river and the cars. But the views across the valley are very nice. Kawase Hasui travelled in this region and did several prints around 1926-1928. Nishijima Katsuyuki takes wood and logs as his print’s main theme.