Okegawa Station: View of the Open Plain

Artist: Keisai Eisen (1790–1848) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Date: ca. 1835–1838
Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Oban size, approximately 10″ x 15″ (25 x 37 cm)

This print depicts a peaceful rural scene at Okegawa, a post station on the inland mountain route between Edo and Kyoto. While the series is a famous collaboration between Eisen and Hiroshige, this specific design was created by Keisai Eisen, whose signature (“Eisen ga”) and seal are visible on the right. The composition highlights the daily life of the common people, showing a traveler with a large sedge hat and heavy pack walking past a local farmstead where a woman is busy winnowing rice on a mat.

Eisen’s approach to the landscape in this series is characterized by a naturalistic, slightly muted color palette and a keen eye for human activity. The “Open Plain” (Kōgen) of the title is represented by the vast, empty background that recedes into a soft, atmospheric horizon, conveying the quiet solitude of the Kiso Road. As part of one of the most significant landscape series in ukiyo-e history, this work is prized for its balanced composition and its historical documentation of Japan’s traditional travel routes.