Magome Station: Distant View from the Pass

A thin waterfall drops from the cliff at left, and beneath it a person riding on an ox's back moves along the road. On the slope at right foreground, a traveler in a broad hat and men carrying an empty palanquin climb bent over. Slender trees stand beside the road, and birds fly in a flock in the distant sky.

The composition is striking, with a large area at center left open as white mist, above which a black peak and, at right, a pale blue mountain float. The deep green of the foreground cliff contrasts with the lightness of the distant mountains, giving a sense of expanse as if looking down from the pass.

Magome stood at the southern end of the eleven Kiso post towns, with the Magome Pass between it and Tsumago to the north. This pass is the route dividing Shinano and Mino, the boundary where one leaves the Kiso Road for the plains of Mino. Magome belonged to Shinano Province in the Edo period, but with the cross-prefecture merger of 2005 it became part of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture.

Drawn by Eisen, its title is given as "Kiso Highway." It bears no signature, and the Tokyo National Museum lists it as "unsigned (attributed to Keisai Eisen)." Opening up a large part of the picture with mist is a technique often seen in Eisen's designs.