Hiroshige — Totsuka: The Motomachi Branch Road | Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō

Utagawa Hiroshige's Totsuka: The Motomachi Branch Road (戸塚 元町別道) is the fifth station of his celebrated series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, published by Hōeidō around 1833–1834.

The scene captures a moment of ordinary road life at the end of a first day's walk from Edo. Outside the Komeya inn — its name written on the hanging sign, its walls papered with notices from pilgrim associations bound for Mount Ōyama — a traveller swings himself onto his horse while a serving woman looks on from the veranda. Two women in blue kimono and wide straw hats pause nearby; a stone marker points left toward Kamakura, and beyond the Yoshida Bridge a shaven-headed pilgrim crosses into the village under thatched roofs and a single dark pine.

The print is also known to collectors for its two states: in the earliest impressions the traveller is dismounting, while later editions such as this one show him climbing into the saddle.

• Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
• Series: Tōkaidō gojūsan-tsugi no uchi, Hōeidō edition
• Original: colour woodblock print (nishiki-e), ōban yoko-e format, c. 1833–34
• Museum-quality reproduction on fine art paper