The Sixty-nine Post Stations of the Kisokaidô Road, Part II

 

 

 

Station: Yawata

Number on print: 25

Main scene: Ômi no Kotôda and Yawata Saburô in hunting dress observing the standards of a body of troops moving through a gorge below them

Insert: rice paddies and a mountain in the mist

Publisher: Hayashi-ya Shôgorô

Robinson: S74.26

 

Station: Mochidzuki

Number on print: 26

Main scene: Kwaidô Maru (Kintoki), attended by a monkey and a white hare, capturing a small tengu

Insert: wooded hill and mountainside

Publisher: Hayashi-ya Shôgorô

Robinson: S74.27

 

NOTE: Tengu are forest-dwelling creatures that are either human-like with wings and long noses or bird-like.

 

 

Station: Ashida

Number on print: 27

Main scene: The witch Nyogetsu-ni followed by Arai Maru

Insert: village among mountains

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.28

 

Station: Nagakubo

Number on print: 28

Main scene: Kichizô seated on a bench, looks over his right shoulder at O-Shichi who holds a framed calligraphy (shôchikubai) signed by herself

Insert: rice paddies, a teahouse and distant hills

Publisher: Tsuji-ya Yasubei

Robinson: S74.29

 

Station: Wada

Number on print: 29

Main scene: Wada Hyôye in court dress on a bridge defying four musketeers

Insert: rice paddies and a village among hills

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.30

 

Station: Shimo no Suwa

Number on print: 30

Main scene: Yayegaki-hime dancing with the sacred helmet of Shingen which is revered by the Takeda Clan

Insert: a waterfall

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.31

 

Station: Shiojiri

Number on print: 31

Main scene: Takagi Toranosuke with his wife and children looking out over the sea with a half submerged whale

Insert: road among pine trees leading towards a mountain

Publisher: Idzutsu-ya Shôkichi

Robinson: S74.32

 

Station: Seba

Number on print: 32

Main scene: Musashi-bô Benkei, having captured Tosa-bô Shôshun in the night-attack on the Horikawa Palace, carries off his captive on horseback

Insert: wooded hills and a band of mist

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.33

 

Station: Motoyama

Number on print: 33

Main scene: Young court dancer as a Yama-uba (mountain genii) descending on a cloud

Insert: village under a hill with a band of mist

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.34

 

Station: Niyekawa

Number on print: 34

Main scene: Takeshiuchi-no-sukune defeating his treacherous brother Amamiuchi-no-sukune in the ordeal of boiling water

Insert: three travelers approaching a bridge with a river and mountain behind

Publisher: Kaga-ya Yasubei

Robinson: S74.35

 

Station: Narai

Number on print: 35

Main scene: Zenkichi taking leave of O-Roku

Insert: hilly landscape with golden mist

Publisher: Minato-ya Kohei

Robinson: S74.36

 

 

Station: Yabuhara

Number on print: 36

Main scene: Suye Harukata armored and mounted cuts through a bamboo spear at the battle of Itsukushima in 1555

Insert: landscape with travelers, hills and a distant village

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.37

 

Station: Miyanokoshi

Number on print: 37

Main scene: Prince Ôto-no-miya, with an acolyte, reading scriptures while his murderer, Fuchibe Yoshihiro, approaches

Insert: pine tree in the mountains

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.38

 

Station: Fukushima

Number on print: 37 (it should be 38)

Main scene: Urashima Tarô on the shore under a pine tree with a tortoise, from whose mouth issues a vision of Mount Hôrai (Mountain of Immortality)

Insert: road descending between steep wooded hills

Publisher: Idzutsu-ya Shôkichi

Robinson: S74.39

 

Station: Agematsu (read Uyematsu on the print)

Number on print: 39

Main scene: Yoshitsune's retainer Eda Genzô in a pine tree near the Hokikawa Palace watching for the approach of Shôshun’s men

Insert: hilly landscape with village

Publisher: Takada-ya Takejirô

Robinson: S74.40

 

Station: Suwara

Number on print: 40 

Main scene: poet Ariwara no

Narihira eloping with Nijô-no-tsubone pursued by men with torches

Insert: a mountain pass

Publisher: Kadzusa-ya Iwazô

Robinson: S74.41

 

Station: Nojiri

Number on print: 41

Main scene: Hirai Yasumasa playing the flute as Hakamadare Yasusuke approaches with a drawn sword

Insert: mountainous road

Publisher: Idzutsu-ya Shôkichi

Robinson: S74.42

 

Station: Mitono (read as Midono on the print)

Number on print: 42

Main scene: Mitono Kotarô fighting off three ruffians on a ruined temple veranda

Insert: village among rice paddies and pine trees

Publisher: Minato-ya Kohei

Robinson: S74.43

 

Station: Tsumago (read as

Tsumagome on the print)

Number on print: 43

Main scene: Abe no Yasuna finding his child with an apparition of its mother, the fox-woman Kuzunoha

Insert: rooftops on a wooded hillside with a mountain behind

Publisher: Minato-ya Kohei

Robinson: S74.44

 

Station: Magome

Number on print: 45 (it should be 44)

Main scene: a bearer displaying a universal sign of disrespect to Takebayashi Sadashichi

Insert: hilly road with a band of pink mist

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.45

 

Station: Ochiai

Number on print: 44 (it should be 45)

Main scene: Kume Sennin falls into the water while staring at a bare bosomed washerwoman

Insert: road descending to a village through wooded hills

Publisher: Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô

Robinson: S74.46

 

Station: Nakatsugawa

Number on print: 46

Main scene: Horibe Yasubei’s aunt and her daughter in a grove of pine-trees watching him revenge his uncle’s murder

Insert: travelers on a plain among mountains

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.47

 

Station: Ôi

Number on print: 47

Main scene: robber Ono Sadakurô calling Yoichibei (a scene from Act V of the kabuki play ‘Kanadehon chûshingura’)

Insert: traveler leading a horse in front of a teahouse

Publisher: Kaga-ya Yasubei

Robinson: S74.48

 

Station: Ôkute

Number on print: 48

Main scene: a young woman grappling with the Hag of the Lonely House at Adachi-ga-hara with a vision of the goddess Kannon protecting the former

Insert: wide road at sunset leading towards a mountain

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.49

 

Station: Hosokute

Number on print: 49

Main scene: Horikoshi Dairei drawing his sword against the ghost of Asakura Tôgo in a scene from the kabuki play ‘Higashiyama Sakura sôshi

Insert: road through a group of pine trees

Publisher: Yawata-ya Sakujirô

Robinson: S74.50

‘Robinson’ refers to listing in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1982) and its unpublished supplement.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART III