No. 37: Miyanokoshi, from the series "Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (Kisokaido rokujukyu tsugi no uchi)"

No. 37: Miyanokoshi is an Edo ukiyo-e landscape print by Utagawa Hiroshige, dating to around 1830 and held in the Art Institute of Chicago, from the celebrated series Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (Kisokaido rokujukyu tsugi no uchi). The Kisokaido was the inland highway connecting Edo and Kyoto through the rugged Kiso valley, and the series, produced jointly by Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen, documented the post stations along its length. Miyanokoshi, station 37, lies deep within mountainous Shinano Province along the Kiso River. Hiroshige depicts the locale with characteristic restraint, layering steep wooded ridges, river bends, and a scattering of village rooftops to evoke the remote character of the inland route. Travelers and laborers move through the foreground, providing scale and signaling the practical function of the highway as a working corridor. The Art Institute of Chicago documents the print as part of its Hiroshige holdings, where it sits alongside other stations from the series. As a Utagawa Hiroshige design, the sheet demonstrates how the artist applied the lessons of his Tokaido work to a more remote and visually demanding route, leaning into the layered topography of the Kiso region. The Kisokaido series occupies a special place within Edo ukiyo-e landscape print history because it documents a less frequently illustrated road and because it captures Hiroshige in productive dialogue with Eisen's distinct sensibility. Miyanokoshi in particular highlights Hiroshige's capacity to convey atmosphere through landform alone, without reliance on dramatic weather or grand architecture. For collectors and scholars, the print remains a useful example of how Hiroshige extended his vocabulary of place across diverse Japanese terrains.