Shimosuwa, from Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

This print shows travelers enjoying a meal at an inn, with the innkeeper looking pleased at the guests’ enthusiasm. In the background, another traveler is gratefully relaxing in a wooden tub filled with hot natural spring water, having discarded his robe next to the bath. Shimosuwa was the only stop along the Kisokaidō—a 534-kilometer (332-mile) road running from Nihonbashi in Edo (now Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto—with a natural hot spring. The print series was a collaboration between Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen (1790–1848).

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