Kisokaidô: Ochiai - Station 44

Utagawa Hiroshige - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Station Ochiai (45th print) (Ochiai)

© Trustees of the British Museum

We enter the Mino Province and leave the high mountains behind us. It is the end of the Kisoji, the road of the Kiso river and the road is reverting to Nakasendo, the name it had in the earlier part of the journey. A daimyo’s entourage straggles down the road to cross the Ochiai bridge as it makes its departure from the station (1). The daimyo is in the closed palanquin (2), with his luggage (3) ahead and followed by his retinue (4). On the rough bluffs in the background is a mass of dark foliage behind which rise the blue mountains of the Ena range (5).

The early impression has red along the top of the print, suggesting the scene is set on a summer morning. A variant colors the near shore and the bluffs behind in yellow to suggest a winter scene. Another variant has a blue bokashi at the top as if the scene were set in the afternoon. In later impressions, the sky remains blue with the near shore and the bluffs returning to green.

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

Tsuzuraore-toge Pass after Magome towards Ochiai

Guide to Kisokaido with sketches by Hiroshige (1851)

Ochiai station on the right and the path towards the river

Guide to Kisokaido with sketches by Hiroshige (1851)

Bridge over Ochiai-gawa river ca.1880

Bridge over Ochiai-gawa river in 2006

And now ?

Before the Meiji restoration, Japan was divided in provinces and their limits were based on the fiefs' territories (See map in page “Kisokaido Road"). Some of these names are still in use today, such as Shinano Province or Shinshu. This is the province we are leaving to enter the Mino province. On the Kisokaido road, the frontier between these two provinces was located at the Jikkoku pass just before Ochiai station. The clans of these two provinces were allied with different factions: the feudal Lord of Shinano was linked to Takeda, then later to the Tokugawa clan while the Mino province was part of the Oda clan. The great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 with Tokugawa’s victory saw the unification of Japan and an end to this endless feuding. Sekigahara is located in Mino province and is a station further down the road.

Basho, a famous haiku poet in the second half of 17th century traveled this area and referred to it in several poems. A haiku is a 17 on (on or sounds used as syllabic meter) poetry describing a scene using the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji ("cutting word") between them. A few examples at right.

In 1843, Ochiai was a small station with 380 inhabitants and 15 inns. Today it is the eastern part of Nakatsugawa. Only the honjin, rebuilt in 1900 and a few old houses remain and a major electric power station has been built on the river at Ochiai.

Hiroshige II gives a different view of the Ochiai bridge in the 1861 print (see below).