Nissaka: Sayo no Nakayama - Utagawa Hiroshige

A woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige depicting the Nissaka station on the Tokaido road, featuring the legendary Night-weeping Stone and travellers in a mountain pass.

Utagawa Hiroshige produced this woodblock print as part of his series titled The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, specifically the edition published by Maruya Seijiro around 1847 to 1852. This set is often called the Reisho Tokaido because of the formal clerical script used for the titles. Nissaka was the twenty-sixth station on the coastal route connecting Edo and Kyoto.

The scene focuses on the Sayo no Nakayama pass, a steep and difficult section of the journey. In the lower centre of the image lies a large, rounded boulder known as the Night-weeping Stone. Local folklore claimed the stone emitted the cries of a murdered woman to protect her infant child. Hiroshige places this legendary object prominently in the foreground, surrounded by sparse grass and a sandy path.

Travellers move through the pass on either side of the stone. To the left, a man carries a child on his back while another figure walks ahead. On the right, a group of three men approach, wearing traditional straw hats and carrying bundles. Large, weathered pine trees with thick trunks frame the view. The pine tree on the right leans at a sharp angle, its bark textured with dark, rhythmic marks. Its branches extend over the path, needles rendered in dense clusters of dark green. The two trees on the left are vertical and massive, their tops cut off by the upper edge of the frame.

Hiroshige used the woodblock medium to create flat areas of colour and sharp outlines. The mountains are rendered with minimal detail, using simple lines to suggest their form. The sky features a series of horizontal white clouds that appear to float behind the distant peaks. The transition of the blue ink, achieved through the bokashi technique, provides a sense of atmospheric depth without the use of linear perspective. This print demonstrates the artist's ability to combine topographical accuracy and local legends.