Title : Öi River

Artist : Utagawa Hiroshige

Date : c. 1843 - 1847

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : This print was conserved with the support of the Robert F. Lange Foundation. Travel literature such as journals and maps appeared long before the Edo period, but it was with Jippensha Ikku's comic series of 1802-09, Adventures Down the Tökaidö (Tökaidöchü hizakurige), that this genre reached its height of popularity. Public demand for illustrated versions of the series culminated a couple of decades later in Utagawa Hiroshige's popular Fifty-three Stations of the Tökaidö, some of which is displayed here. In the 1840s there were few Japanese who were not familiar with the author Jippensha Ikku's tale of the comically belligerent duo featured in the center of this print, Yaji and Kita. In this scene the two are on the Shimada side of the Öi River. Kita is pulling Yaji by the arm, saying, "Hey, Yaji, you just don't know when to quit… hurry up, let's go!" The problem is that Yaji was attempting to impersonate a samurai-a serious crime-in order to get a discount on the expensive toll for being ferried west across the dangerous Öi River to Kanaya, visible in the distance. This print offers an intriguing visual and textual presentation, chronologically faithful to Ikku's text. On the far left is the wholesaler, seated high on his post. To his left is some loose change and other items; in front of him stands a strong-armed assistant. In the center, the perturbed Kita is scolding Yaji, still arguing his case about being the descendent of a famous samurai, despite having a sword with a broken tip. Finally, on the far top right is the title of the print followed by a comic tanka poem: "An off-the-peg, dull samurai's mark it is said to be: The tip of his sword is broken in shame." The Öi River flows in a southeasterly direction, down from the mountains into Suruga Bay. The river still runs between Shimada and Kanaya and on its way passes under major train lines and expressways.

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