大井川駿岸　島田　か奈や迄一里

About this print

Plank bridges have been laid over the shallow streams of the Oi River, and people with Western umbrellas and travelers holding woven hats are walking across. On the near bank, people rest with their loads set down, and white Mount Fuji rises in the distance. "Sungan" in the title means the bank on the Suruga side, and it is 1 ri to Kanaya on the far bank. This 1875 (Meiji 8) print is from Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki (Famous Places of the Tokaido, Revised Travel Guide), a series by Utagawa Hiroshige III.

In the Edo period, neither boats nor bridges were allowed on the Oi River, and travelers crossed with the help of kawagoshi ninsoku, river porters. This rule was abolished in 1870, and people could then cross by boat or bridge. The people in the print crossing the planks on their own feet are a new sight from after that change.

In Shimada-juku, the kawakaisho, the office that ran the river crossings, still stands, and the banyado, where the porters waited, have been reconstructed. In 1966 the area became a national Historic Site as the Shimada-juku Oigawa Kawagoshi Iseki (Oi River Crossing Site at Shimada-juku). The kawakaisho, built in 1856, is the only building on the site that survives from the Edo period.

Glossary