Miyanokoshi

Three people cross the plank bridge in the foreground: one carrying a child on the back, a woman, and a child pointing ahead. Beneath the bridge are a blue current and thickets of reeds, and on the sandbar beyond a large tree stands as a black shadow, with the roofs of houses and a figure holding an umbrella faintly visible in the mist farther back.

Against the full moon in the sky, the trees are expressed as outline-less masses of gray and black, growing fainter the farther away they are. In the restrained picture, only the blue of the figures' robes and the indigo of the river stand out sharply, conveying the damp air of a misty night.

Miyanokoshi was one of the eleven Kiso post towns, a small town along the Kiso River. It is said to be where Kiso Yoshinaka raised his banner, and many historic sites connected with Yoshinaka remain around the town. A record of 1843 (Tenpo 14) gives about 137 houses and 21 inns, so it was probably a calm-looking post town by Kiso Road standards.

This series was begun by Eisen and taken over partway through by Hiroshige. This print is by Hiroshige and is renowned as a masterpiece of night scenes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has two impressions that differ in the gradations of the sky and river. Keeping the figures small and making the presence of nature the protagonist is where Hiroshige's character shows.