六江川鉄道　川崎神奈川迄二リ半

About this print

This nishiki-e (multicolored woodblock print) shows the railway crossing the Rokugo River in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. The title spells the river's name differently, but other collections record it as the Rokugo River. It is one sheet from Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki (Famous Places of the Tokaido, Revised Travel Guide), a series (soroimono) in which Utagawa Hiroshige III depicted the post stations of the Tokaido in the Meiji era. The record titles it Kaisei Gojusan Eki (The Fifty-three Stations, Revised), and it was published in 1875 (Meiji 8). "Kanagawa made ni ri han" gives the distance to the next post station, Kanagawa: two and a half ri (about 10 kilometers).

Rokugo River is the name for the lower reaches of the Tama River. When Japan's first railway opened between Shinbashi and Yokohama in 1872 (Meiji 5), a wooden railway bridge was built here, and in 1877 it was replaced with Japan's first iron bridge built for double track. People could not walk across the railway bridge, but from 1874 there was a wooden toll bridge built by a local man, Suzuki Sanai.

The present railway bridge, built in 1971 (Showa 46), is the fourth. One span of the 1877 iron bridge was moved to the Museum Meiji-mura in Aichi Prefecture and is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Glossary