217
Andō Hiroshige
Musa
1841 - 1843

Signed: Hiroshige ga; artist’s seal: Ichiryūsai; Publisher’s logo: hayashi (Iseya Rihei); censor’s seal: kiwame; ōban, yoko-e, 24.4 x 36.4 cm; nishiki-e with fukibokashi

Print (station no.) 67 from “The 69 Stations of the Kisokaidō Road – no. 66(!)”. Musa, actually the sixty-seventh station of the Kisokaidō, was mistakenly marked with a red seal designating it as numer 66. The print is from the fourth phase (1841–1843) of the series (cf. cat. 194). A narrow river flows through swampy terrain in the foreground. Standing on the banks, a man is observing the activity on a boat dock. In the background there is a hut for weary travellers along the street leading from Egawa to Kyōto via Musa.

R. E. Lewis, San Francisco (March 1977)
Riese Collection #158

There were two rivers in the vicinity of Musa, the Yokozegawa and the Zenkojigawa. Sometime in the distant past when the district was practically deserted, a hermit named Ishibe Dairen lived there planting seedlings of pine, cryptomeria and cypress and worshipping the gods. In time the trees grew to be a great forest which was celebrated in poetry. Dairen lived to be over one hundred and when he died a shrine was built in the forest in this memory.