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

The stone is linked to a local legend in which bandits murdered a pregnant woman on the road; her blood is said to have stained the rock, which then weeps each night. According to the tale, the nocturnal sobbing alerts a passing monk—identified with the bodhisattva Kannon—to the infant’s survival, leading to the child’s eventual vengeance.

Rendered in the ukiyo‑e woodblock tradition, the image employs muted ink washes and subtle color accents to convey a moonlit atmosphere. The artist uses delicate line work for the figures and a soft, almost luminous treatment of the stone, suggesting moisture and a faint glow.

Created as part of the series *The Fifty‑Three Stations of the Tōkaidō*, the print was produced in the early nineteenth century by the renowned Edo‑period artist Hiroshige. The series was widely circulated as a set of multicolored woodblock prints, popular among travelers and collectors of the time.

The Tōkaidō stations were common subjects for ukiyo‑e artists, who combined topographical detail with folklore. This particular scene illustrates how Hiroshige incorporated a regional ghost story into a broader visual record of the road, blending narrative and landscape.