平松山の松原　水口　石部迄三り十二丁

About this print

At the foot of a green hill, a plank bridge crosses a river fed by a small waterfall, and a man in a hat and hakama and a child in a red kimono are crossing it. On the hill stands a thatched teahouse, and at the far right is a rickshaw. This is the view around Hiramatsu, on the way from the Minakuchi post town to the Ishibe post town, from Utagawa Hiroshige III's Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki (Famous Places of the Tokaido, Revised Travel Guide), published in 1875 (Meiji 8). The National Diet Library titles it Kaisei Gojusan Eki (The Fifty-three Stations, Revised).

On the hills of Hiramatsu grow the Utsukushi Matsu (beautiful pines), whose trunks split into many near the base and grow into the shape of an open umbrella. An Edo-period guide to famous places described them as "a most remarkable sight," and they were known to people traveling the Tokaido as a famous spot for pines.

The natural habitat of the Utsukushi Matsu is in Hiramatsu, in what is now the city of Konan, and it became a national Natural Monument in 1921 (Taisho 10). In recent years, however, pine wilt has spread, and local people keep working to protect the trees.

Glossary