Oiwake: Oiwa and Takuetsu, no. 21 from the series Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō Road (Kisokaidō rokujūkyū tsugi no uchi) 「追分　おいは　宅悦」 『木曾街道六十九次之内』

Object Details

• Artist

  Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1798-1861)

• Publisher

  Takadaya Takezo 高田屋竹蔵 (active ca. 1851-1861)

• Block carver

  Hori Chosen (active mid-19th century)

• Printer

  Suriko Kozenki (active mid-19th century)

• Label

  The Kisokaidō road was one of the five main highways that traversed Japan in the Edo period (1603–1868), connecting Edo and Kyoto via a mountainous inland route. As domestic tourism developed over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the stations along the road became associated with different views and local goods particular to that area. For this series, Utagawa Kuniyoshi was commissioned to produce designs to match each of the stations, creating images whose subjects are often clever puns on the place names. Here, Kuniyoshi has paired the famous “hair-combing” scene from Ghost Story of Yotsuya on the Tōkaidō with the station Oiwake, located in Nagano prefecture. The literal meaning of “Oiwake” is “forked road,” but the same sounds can also mean “Oiwa’s hair” (Oiwa-ke).

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints (March 23 to October 6, 2024)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Pearl and Seymour Moskowitz Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1850s, 1680s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Hori, Chosen, Takadaya, Takezo, Suriko, Kozenki, Utagawa, Kuniyoshi

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Oiwa, Art, Ghost, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, The Pearl and Seymour Moskowitz Collection

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints