Niekawa

In the center of the picture, a two-story inn is drawn from the front, with many signboards bearing characters hung under the eaves. At the storefront a guest who has dismounted from his horse sits down while a packhorse driver unloads cargo. In the earthen-floored entrance inside, the inn's staff greet the guest, at right a man stands holding a ledger, and from the second floor guests peer out.

The pillars and lattice of the inn are finely drawn in brown and gray, and the white signboards give the picture a regular rhythm. A palanquin is placed at the far left, and the green of the pines behind it and the indigo of the sky set off the brown of the building. The indigo and red of the figures' robes also catch the eye within the subdued colors.

Niekawa was the northernmost of the eleven Kiso post towns, standing at the entrance to the Kiso Road. A checkpoint was placed there, and it is said to have inspected the passage of women and the removal of timber. The signboards are thought to indicate the travel associations or regular inns of travelers.

This is a design by Utagawa Hiroshige. Some see the characters on the inn's signs as including the names of this series' publisher and others involved. Like the Shimosuwa print, it is a design that draws the buildings and people of a post town up close, adding variety among the landscape prints.