45th Station: Shono

This image is considered the masterpiece of Hiroshige’s Hoeido version of the Fifty-three Stations on the Tokaido Road. In a lashing rainstorm, two sets of travelers cross paths, as one group struggles uphill, and the other downhill. The uphill bearers, with the wind at their backs, bend to their task. They have thrown a cloth over the top of the kago bearing their charge, just visible at an open corner. The downhill travelers fare much worse, facing into the wind. Neither umbrella nor sedge hat protects them from the gusting downpour.  Fortunately, roofs seen in a nearby valley suggest possible refuge.

In 1998 Shono established an archives museum in one of the former honjin to share the story of the old post station along the Tokaido.