(SOLD) Nojiri - Keisai Eisen

The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō Road
Kisokaidō rokujūkyū tsugi no uchi
木曾街道六拾九次之内

Date: 1834-1842
Publisher: Takenouchi Magohachi (Hoeidō) (1st part) and Iseya Rihei (Kinjudō) (2nd part). Later editions published by Kinjudo.
Format: Horizontal ōban
Number of Prints: 70/70 (+ Title Page)

The 534 km long Kisokaidō Road linked the shōgun's capital of Edo (present day Tokyo) and the imperial capital Kyoto. On the highway there were sixty-nine halting places. These halting places, together with the starting point at the Nihonbashi (Japan Bridge) in Edo, make up the seventy subjects found in the series of views of the Kisokaidō Road. Unlike the coastal Tōkaidō Road, the Kisokaidō travels inland through central Honshū. It is sometimes referred to as the Nakasendō and it's name can be translated as "central mountain route".

This series was a collaboration between Hiroshige and Keisei Eisen who produced twenty-three of the seventy prints.

The bridge over the Ina River at Nojiri, Nojiri Inagawabashi enkei, from Kisokaido rokujukyutsugi no uchi , “Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido.”  The conjecture is that Hiroshige was the better known and more commercial artist, reinforced by the fact that Eisen’s name was removed from the designs already published. Hence only the first editions have his signature on those prints. Shows the cascade beneath the bridge, the underside of which resembles Mount Fuji. Top left, just visible in the mist, are the steps leading to the Kiyomizu Temple of Kiso. (Now a world heritage site, famous for the wooden stage jutting out over the mountainside supported by 139 12-meter high keyaki wood pillars.) 

There are a number of different states with alternative colouring to the hills, variant gradation below the falls, losing the blue mountains in the distance and without the flight of geese behind the bridge. Only the first edition has the geese, the blue mountains and the Eisen signature (as here). Fine colour. Margins trimmed a little, otherwise very good condition. Signed Keisai ga.

41 Nojiri: Distant View of the Ina River Bridge (Eisen)
(Nojiri, Inakawa-bashi enbō)
野尻　伊奈川橋遠景
Estampe ca 1970    38 x 25 cm