Sekigahara

On the right is a thatched-roof teahouse, where travelers on the benches under the eaves smoke long pipes or drink tea. A large lantern hangs beneath the eaves. In the center a man leads a horse loaded with baggage, and farther back at left another horse is resting. Down the road, houses and passersby appear small.

Thick-trunked trees stand at left and right, letting a deep indigo sky show between their branches. The earthen road is broad and bright, with people and horses gathered in the foreground, giving a sense of the relaxed time of a post town. A tree in bloom is also drawn beside the teahouse.

Sekigahara-juku was a post town in Fuwa District, Mino Province. In ancient times the Fuwa Barrier stood here, and it was the stage of the Jinshin War and the Battle of Sekigahara in the fifth year of Keicho (1600). In the Edo period it was also a key traffic point where roads such as the Hokkoku Wakikan branched off.

This is a design by Hiroshige. Though this was the site of the battle that decided the fate of the realm, he chose not to show traces of the fighting but a scene at a highway teahouse. The station name in the title is written "Sekigahara" (関か原), and the Tokyo National Museum and the National Diet Library both hold the same design.