Kunisada - Fifty-three Parallels for the Tokaido Road

Utagawa Kunisada

One of the few ghost prints from the collaborative Tokaido series "Fifty-three Parallels for the Tôkaidô Road". This is Station Nissaka and the legend of the Crying Stone of Saya no Nakayama, where a traveling rônin receives a child from the ghost of his wife. In the background you can see a pine tree that is said to be the Crying Pine.

The text reads:
"Once upon a time, at this station, a wandering woman's wife became pregnant. Her husband was on a loyal journey to Azuma and waited for her return. One night, at the pine grove of Kutsukake in Nakayama, a bandit appeared and, unable to stop loving her, he killed her and her whereabouts were unknown. The woman appeared to him as a Kannon monk whom she had longed for every day and gave some candy to the baby in the deceased woman's arms and let her raise it. Her husband, unaware of this and having had a bad dream, hurried home when he heard the story of the crying stone and felt a strange feeling. One night, as he was passing by the stones of Kutsukake Pine Grove, the ghost of the wife appeared, narrating a tragic tale, handing over the baby she had been carrying, and then the husband's spirit clung to her and they finally defeated the enemy."

Publisher: Iba-ya Sensaburô

Date: 1845

Condition: Very good color. Full borders, backed with Edo era paper.

Genre: Ukiyo-e