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Utagawa Hiroshige - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Station Motoyama (33rd print) (Motoyama)
© Trustees of the British Museum
Timber was the main industry of these mountain areas, and it was transported all the way down to Edo. Planting and careful felling here were centrally organized by the shogunate from the 17th century onwards.
A large pine tree has grown up awkwardly across the road and is propped up with a trestle (1). Beneath, two loggers rest at the end of a long day, chatting and smoking in front of a small fire (2) as they sit on a tree they have cut down. The sawed-off trunk (3) appears immediately behind them. Smoke from their fire rises up through the center of the design, bisecting the composition. A lonely traveller (4) arrives at the brow of the pass on the left and in the vicinity of the loggers, two small boys (5) with baskets full of gleanings from the mountainside on their backs make their way downhill. The approach of the night is signaled by the dark blue bokashi gradation which extends downward from the top of the print.
In the earliest impressions, the smoke from the fire has a dark gray bokashi at the base which rises above the trunk, but this reduced in later impressions as here. Then the loggers’ clothing lose their blue and green colors to become brown and the trunk becomes dark gray. Printing becomes coarser and the quality of the print decreases.
(Source: The 69 stations of the Kisokaido, Sebastian Izzard, Brazillier 2008)
Between Shiojiri and Motoyama in 1890
Motoyama in 1875
Wood merchants ca. 1897
Wood gathering (picture taken ca.1890)
Loggers and their fire (hand colored picture dated 1875)
Wood gathering in the mountains in 1895
And now ?
Motoyama became an official station in 1614, together with Shiojiri and Seba. It is now part of Shiojiri town. Nothing is left of the old station as a fire destroyed it late 19th century.
Soba noodles are Motoyama specialities. These are buckwheat noodles prepared with water and lined on a plate where they are cut in 1mm to 2mm (half inch) wide strips. Soba are then plunged in boiling water and are eaten either hot with soup or cold with soy sauce and radish. When served cold, the name is “zaru-soba”, zaru being the bamboo on which they are presented. Soba are said to have been created at Motoyama and the “Shinano Soba” are the most famous (Shinano is the old name of this province)
Now grapes have replaced timber as the main industry and Nagano prefecture has important vineyards. The first wines were imported by Jesuit priests in the 16th century. Now wine, mostly white is traditionally made with the local Koshu grape which are large and pinkish. But around 1890 American and German grapes have been planted around Shiojiri and Motoyama. More recently merlot grape has been imported even if the Japanese climate is too humid, especially during the rainy season (in June). But here, thanks to the mountains and the local winds, the climate is dryer and better suited for this grape which is quite successful.
It is between Motoyama and Niekawa, after the hamlet of Hideshio that the Kisoji starts. It is the section of the Nakasendo following the valleys of the Narai and Kiso rivers through the mountains. A stone is engraved with 是より南 木曽路 "From here South, the Kisoji road"
Zaru-soba on their drying bamboo tray
Engraved stone 是より南 木曽路 "From here South, the Kisoji Road"
"Nakasendo" road marker at Motoyama
Motoyama in 2007
Kisokaido road through the mountains after Motoyama
Nishijima Katsuyuki - Series of Kisokaido - Motoyama
Note the persimmons drying under the eaves on the left
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