Kisokaidô: Fushimi - Station 50

Utagawa Hiroshige - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Station Fushimi (52nd print) (Fushimi)

© Trustees of the British Museum

Fushimi was a prosperous station on the Kiso River where payments of land tax in the form of rice were loaded onto barges and shipped down to the coast towards Nagoya. The building (1) can be seen in the distance on the left. The road is usually lined up with pine trees providing shade or protection from the rain. But here it is a large cypress (2) where a party of pilgrims rests in the midday heat. One naps while two others enjoy a packed lunch (3). In the foreground is a pair of samurai banner men, one (4) bending to adjust his sandal. A country doctor (5) approaches from the left carrying his medical supplies in a red wrapping cloth on his back, holding up a parasol against the sun. From the smile on his face, he is pleased to encounter some fellow travellers and a welcome spot of shade. On the right, a trio of itinerant blind female musicians (6) makes its way towards the station.

The earliest impressions have a band of red bokashi at the top to suggest the heat of midday. Later impressions replaced the red with blue and this is the only modification to this print.

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

View of Fushimi, sketch by Hiroshige in Guide to Kisokaido (Kisoji Meisho zue) published in 1851 (Source Waseda University, Tokyo)

The monument located where the large cypress in Hiroshige's print used to stand

Wandering musicians ca.1900

Fushimi

And now ?

Fushimi is now within the village of Mitake. There is nothing left of the old station, but a couple of commemorative stones such as the one at the location of the large cypress shown in the print. The honjin was destroyed in a fire in 1848 and never rebuilt, probably because it was too close to the ones in Mitake or in Ota, the next station. The national road supersedes the old Nakasendo and the row of old houses was destroyed when the national road was enlarged. With the heavy traffic, this is the one of the least pleasing stretch of the journey.

Fushimi was also the starting point of another road named Uwa-kaido which linked Nakasendo and the Tokaido at Nagoya, third largest town in Japan and the region's main city. Nagoya is located on the Tokaido, in a plain where several rivers, including the Kiso River empty in the Pacific Ocean. Nagoya was the seat of the Owari region and several lords and samurai such as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were born here. Nagoya and its castle later became an important possession of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The castle was destroyed during the Second World War bombings and was rebuilt in 1970. The silhouette of its keep with the famous Shachihoko, golden fishes with tiger head at the top is the symbol of the city. It is also the subject of many prints from Hiroshige II classic ukiyo-e in 1860 to Tsuchiya Koitsu in Shin-hanga style in 1930.