Miyanokoshi

Catalog note / 解説

This print is from the series The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidô Highway. Hiroshige collaborated on this series with the artist Keisai Eisen. In this print, Hiroshige captures figures in the mist at Miyanokoshi, the thirty-sixth station on the Kisokaidô Highway. Centuries of peace during the Edo period, and the development of a sophisticated highway network, fostered a culture of mass travel in Japan. The Kisokaidô Highway ran east to west over the inland mountains and images of scenic spots along its route served as cheap and easy souvenirs. The lack of outline and soft colours give the landscape in the middle and far distance of this print an other-worldly glow. In the foreground, a…