Miya: Shichiri Ferry Crossing, Gate to the Atsuta Shrine, and Nezame Village (Miya, Shichiri no watashi, Atsuta no torii, Nezame no sato)—No. 42, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido

Miya: Shichiri Ferry Crossing, Gate to the Atsuta Shrine, and Nezame Village, number 42 from Utagawa Hiroshige's Reisho Tokaido of about 1842, depicts one of the most distinctive moments along the great coastal road. Now at the Art Institute of Chicago, the print belongs to the version of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido whose title characters are written in reisho, or clerical, script. Miya served as the post station nearest Atsuta Shrine in present-day Nagoya, and travelers commonly continued from there by the Shichiri no Watashi, the seven-ri ferry that crossed Ise Bay to Kuwana, bypassing a long inland route. As an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print, Hiroshige's design weaves together three motifs: the towering shrine torii signaling Atsuta, the embarkation point of the ferry, and the modest village of Nezame nearby. By collapsing these landmarks into a single composition, Hiroshige offers a synoptic record of what Tokaido travelers experienced when passing through Miya. Bokashi-graded sky and sea set off the dark mass of the torii and the silhouettes of waiting boats, while small figures attend to baggage, passengers, and devotional duties. The Reisho Tokaido reflects mid-career Hiroshige's interest in expanding the visual vocabulary of his station series, often choosing meisho associated with each post town rather than the post infrastructure itself. The Atsuta Shrine, dedicated to the sword Kusanagi and central to Japanese imperial myth, justified that emphasis here. The result is a richly layered topographical and devotional landscape that demonstrates Hiroshige's command of his own established form.