Futagawa

Futagawa was the thirty-sixth station on the Tokaido highway, located in what is now Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture, situated near the Toyokawa River delta. In Hiroshige's version, the station is shown with tethered horses being tended at a post house. Sekino's interpretation — whether part of his formal Tokaido series or a standalone depiction — would approach the subject through his own compositional judgment and his awareness of the postwar landscape's changes. The Futagawa area is also associated historically with the Horaiji temple route and agricultural flatlands before the mountains of the Mikawa region begin. As a post town midway through the long highway journey, it offers the quieter character of the road between major cities — an opportunity for landscape or atmospheric observation rather than dramatic event. Sekino's sosaku-hanga method, with full control from design through printing, allows subtle mood and color choices unavailable in commercially produced prints.