Kisokaidô: Unuma - Station 52

Keizai Eisen - Series of the 69 stations of the Kisokaido: Station Unuma (54th print) (Unuma - Distant view from Inuyama)

© Trustees of the British Museum

After Ota, the road follows the Kiso River until Unuma, important junction linking the travel routes that connected the provinces of Mino and Owari. The view in the print is looking to the North with in the right foreground, travellers (1) crossing the moat into the walls of the castle, dominated by its keep (2). Below them on the left, the waiting area (3) for the ferryboat (4), which can be seen crossing the broad Kiso River. On the opposite bank, travellers are walking towards the station (5) with its roofs seen against the foothills of the Japanese Alps.

The print shown here is a first edition with two publisher seals 竹内 (takeuchi) and 保永堂 (Hoeido)(6) and Eisen’s signature 渓斎画 (Keisai ga) (7). In the second edition, the signature is omitted, and then later the seals disappear. In a few known prints, the gray block for the keep has slipped, leading to a double impression and a blurred outline.

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

Yoshida Hiroshi - The Kiso-Gawa river and the Inuyama Castle (1927)

And now ?

The road between Ota and Unuma follows the main national road and is not pleasant to walk, even if it offers nice views over the river. Then it leaves the national road to go through the Uto-toge pass and towards the Iwaya Kannon Temple. Unuma is one of the oldest station as it was already a stop on the old Tosanto road, forebear to the Nakasendo road. Today the station located at 396km/247mi from Edo is included int the town of Kakamigahara. But it was a small station with eight inns which never really developed, probably because it was too close to the castle on the other side of the river.

The Inuyama Castle is one of the 12 remaining castle with their original keeps*. The keep was built in 1537 and was part of the Oda holdings. It changed hands several times in the second half of the 16^th century until it was given to the Naruse family in 1616 who kept it until very recently. It was the last castle in private hands and boasted the oldest keep in Japan. Its silhouette on the hill above the river is a favourite subject for prints.

* The 12 remaining original castles are (from East to West): Hirosaki, Matsumoto, Inuyama (station 52), Hikone (Bamba, station 62), Maruoka, Himeji, Bichu Matsuyama, Marugame, Kochi, Matsue, Iyo Matsuyama, Iwajima.