Cleveland Museum of Art

Nissaka: The Night-Weeping Stone at Sayo no Nakayama, from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō

Utagawa Hiroshige

Date: c. 1848–50
Medium: Color woodblock print
Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Department: Japanese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This print is an image of a mountain pass in Nissaka, one of the stops along the Tōkaidō, a road running from Kyoto to Edo (present-day Tokyo). This scene alludes to a legend in which bandits murdered a pregnant woman on that stretch of road, and her blood fell upon a stone. Shown in the foreground, the stone is said to contain the woman’s spirit, and so it weeps each night. In some versions of the story, the stone’s cry alerts a passing monk (really the disguised bodhisattva Kannon) to the presence of her infant, who survived the attack. The monk takes the child from the deceased mother’s body, and raises it as his own. The child goes on to avenge its mother. This print belongs to a series known colloquially as the “Formal Script Tōkaidō” because of the style of text in which the name of the series is printed.

View at Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.

No. 25, Nissaka: Mount Mugen, the Night-crying Stone, and Sayo Mountain Pass (Mugenzan, Yonaki-ishi, Sayo-no-nakayama), from the series The Tōkaidō Road, The Fifty-three Stations (Tōkaidō, Gojūsan tsugi no uchi)

Harvard Art Museums

Nissaka: Sayo Mountain Pass (Nissaka, Sayo no nakayama), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi no uchi)," also known as the Hoeido Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Nihon Bridge: Morning Scene (Nihonbashi, asa no kei), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road (Tokaido gojusan tsugi no uchi)," also known as the Hoeido Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Nissaka, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)

Art Institute of Chicago

Nissaka, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)"

Art Institute of Chicago

Yokkaichi: The Junction of the Road to Ise Shrine at Hinaga Village (Yokkaichi, Hinagamura oiwake, Sangudo)—No. 44, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Nissaka, from the series "Fifty-three Stations [of the Tokaido] (Gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Figure Tokaido (Jinbutsu Tokaido)

Art Institute of Chicago

Numazu—Dusk (Numazu—tasogare zu), from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi)

Art Institute of Chicago

Sakanoshita: Kannon in the Cave (Sakanoshita, Gankutsu no Kannon), no. 49 from the series "Famous Sights of the Fifty-three Stations (Gojusan tsugi meisho zue)," also known as the Vertical Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Miya: Shichiri Ferry Crossing, Gate to the Atsuta Shrine, and Nezame Village (Miya, Shichiri no watashi, Atsuta no torii, Nezame no sato)—No. 42, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Hakone: Night Procession in the Mountains (Hakone, sanchu yagyo no zu), no. 11 from the series "Famous Sights of the Fifty-three Stations (Gojusan tsugi meisho zue)," also known as the Vertical Tokaido

Art Institute of Chicago

Evening Snow at Asuka Hill, from the series Eight Views of the Environs of Edo

Cleveland Museum of Art