25th Station: Nissaka

In this print, travelers move from the flat shallows of the Oi River to an extremely steep road through the forbidding dark mountains. In the foreground several travelers contemplate a large boulder in the road. This boulder was a noted landmark on the Tokaido called the “Night weeping stone.” According to legend, bandits attacked and murdered a pregnant woman on this spot. After she died, a passing priest heard the stone call out for him to rescue the surviving infant. Legend has it that the priest saved and raised the child.

Nissaka was located at the western entrance to the Sayo no Nakayama Pass, regarded as one of the three most difficult mountain passes along the Tokaido. The Tokaido Road Main Line railroad, established during the Meiji period (1868-1912), was built to avoid traveling through this difficult pass.