Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)
Nissaka: Sayo no Nakayama
日坂 · Nissaka
Utagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
What it is
Travellers pause around a large round stone on the steep road of Sayo no Nakayama near Nissaka, the twenty-fifth station, with sharp hills falling away on either side.
Why it matters
Hiroshige steepens the slope until the road seems to drop off the sheet: the mountain pass at its hardest.
What to notice
The stone sits in the middle of the road, and the travellers gather around it as if it were the reason they stopped.
Something in the road becomes a place.
The record
- Artist
- Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858)
- Series
- Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)
- Date
- c. 1833–34
- Publisher
- Hōeidō (Takenouchi Magohachi)
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art · JP2878
Impression note. Hiroshige made the series after his first trip along the Tōkaidō in 1832, and it became the best-selling set of ukiyo-e prints, so impressions vary widely in strength and colour. This is the largest clean open impression of the design the Met holds. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Nihonbashi: Morning SceneUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Shinagawa: SunriseUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Hakone: The LakeUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34
Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hōeidō edition)Mishima: Morning MistUtagawa Hiroshige · c. 1833–34The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.