Kisokaidô: Mitake - Station 49

Utagawa Hiroshige - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Station Mitake (51st print) (Mitake)

© Trustees of the British Museum

The bustle of an inn outside the station in the early evening is the subject of Hiroshige’s composition. A notice written on the paper screen advertises cheap lodgings “kichinyado” きちん宿(1). Seated on the edge of the raised floor, an elderly pilgrim (2) takes off his sandals. Inside the inn, four travelers, one (3) of whom chats with the kneeling mistress of the house, sit around a large cauldron. In the street outside, a woman (4) carries two buckets suspended from a pole over her shoulder and an old woman (5) is scrubbing a wooden bucket by a stream under the watchful eyes of an idle youth (6). Behind them a porter struggles up the pass towards the inn with Mt.Ontake in the distance.

The two gradations, one coming down from the top of the print, the other one rising from the horizon suggest the approaching night. There were no changes to the print, bit its printing quality became coarser as the editions progressed.

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

The inn depicted in Hiroshige's print in 2010

Mitake station and Ganko-ji temple in "Kisoji Meisho Zue" or Illustrated album of the famous places along the Kiso road (1805)

And now ?

Mitake was the first officially established station on the road in 1602. It was already a station on the Tosanto road, the first road linking Kyoto and Nara to the North of Japan and ancestor to Nakasendo road. Mitake was created in 815 when the priest Saicho created the Ganko-ji temple. Saicho went to China with kobo-Daiichi on one of the first Japanese diplomatic missions and upon his return, founded the Tendai sect of Buddhism with the Enryaku-ji Temple in Kyoto as main temple. Later he traveled across Japan and founded several temples including the one in Mitake. In 995, devastating floods brought much destruction to the area, but the village and the temple were spared. To thank the gods, the temple was enlarged and until today a yearly festival is celebrated to commemorate the event. The temple buildings were destroyed by fire several times, the last time during the battles between Takeda Shingen and Oda Nobunaga in 1572. Today’s buildings date from 1598 and a 9th century statue of Buddha given by Saicho himself is enshrined.

The village has kept its atmosphere of post station with the honjin and several old houses, including the Tateya Inn built in 1877. A picture dated 1910 shows us a resthouse which does not exist anymore. But the inn subject of Hirsohige’s print is still standing, even if it is not operating anymore. Nakasendo road is now only a smaller path running through the foothills and the fields. The Kiso valley is large and the road is parallel to the river, invisible beyond the ridge.