Kakegawa: The Crossroad at Akibayama (Kakegawa, Akibayama betsudo)—No. 27, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido

Kakegawa: The Crossroad at Akibayama (Kakegawa, Akibayama betsudo) is the twenty-seventh station in Utagawa Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi), in the version often called the Reisho Tokaido, published around 1842 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Kakegawa lay along the Tokaido in Totomi Province and was significant not only as a post town but also as the branching point for the side road that climbed toward Akibayama, the mountain shrine dedicated to fire protection that attracted pilgrims from across the country. Hiroshige's design highlights this junction by depicting the meeting of two routes, with travelers turning onto the Akiba side road. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, the image organizes the scene around the diagonal of the diverging road, set against the gentle hills that mark the inland edge of Kakegawa. Small figures—porters with bundles, a traveler on horseback, pilgrims with staves—provide narrative incident, while a signpost or torii in the middle ground signals the religious destination ahead. The bokashi gradation of the sky and the cool greens of distant foliage place the scene in a clear, untroubled day, in contrast with the rain and snow designs found elsewhere in the series. The Reisho Tokaido as a whole responded to ongoing demand for Tokaido imagery by re-staging each station with new compositional choices, and this Kakegawa sheet emphasizes the way a single post town could function as a hub linking the main highway to wider pilgrimage networks.