Changing Porters and Horses at Fujieda

Post stations on the Tokaido had a toiya-ba, which prepared porters and horses to carry official baggage to the next station. Baggage was handed over to fresh people and horses at each station, and this was called jinba-tsugitate. This print catches that work in full swing.

In the toiya-ba at back right, an official watches over things, while in the foreground porters shoulder their loads again, wipe sweat with hand towels, and take a break. The packhorse drivers adjust the loads on the horses. Each figure has a different posture, and the group does not tire the eye.

Look closely, and the placard on a load carried by a porter bears the publisher's name Hoeido, and the horse's belly cover bears the character Takenouchi, after the publisher's owner Takenouchi Magohachi. This is a print that makes the work of people at the post station, rather than scenery, its subject.

Fujieda-juku was the 22nd post station from Shinagawa, about 2 km long, with houses lined up around the toiya-ba and honjin. Within the station was also the main gate of Tanaka Castle. The scene of the toiya-ba in this print conveys concretely the workings of such a post station. In the back of the picture, a grove of trees and a tethered horse can also be seen.