Station: Shimonosuwa (下諏訪)
Description: One of the most beautiful prints in the series, Yaegaki-hime dances with the sacred helmet of Shingen which is revered by the Takeda Clan. The landscape panel insert shows a waterfall.
Series: Kisokaidô rokujûku tsugi. The sixty-nine post stations of the Kisokaido
Print No: 30
Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)
Signature: Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga and kiri seal
Date: 1852 (Kaei 5), 8th month
Cens: Kinugasa, Murata, Rat 8 (some impressions show Mera, watanabe)
Publisher: Yawataya Sakujirō
Size: Oban tate-e,
Condition: Fine impression, colour and condition. Finely applied bokashi, mica, and with gauffrage. A truly magical print
Price: TBC
References: Robinson S74.31; BMFA – William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, 11.38972.31;
The tale of the print – The beautiful Yaegaki-hime (八重垣姫), who danced with fox spirits and carried a helmet like it was a sacred lantern.
Shimonosuwa’s print is one of the most enchanting in the entire series, featuring Yaegaki-hime, the heroine of the kabuki classic Japan’s Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety.
The story unfolds around Lake Suwa, close to shimonosuwa station, and blends clan rivalry, romance, divine intervention, and a surprising amount of ‘foxy’ choreography.
Yaegaki is caught between two loyalties: her father, Nagao Kenshin, and her beloved fiancé, Takeda Katsuyori, who sneaks into the Nagao mansion to retrieve a stolen heirloom helmet.
This helmet is no ordinary headgear — it’s decorated with long white hair and kept in a shrine in the garden, which already gives it “mystical object with plot importance” energy.
In the famous scene known as “Fox Fires in the Inner Garden”, (Okuniwa kitsunebi no ba) Yaegaki removes the helmet and prepares to deliver it to Katsuyori. The God of Suwa, clearly rooting for true love, sends fox spirits to guide her. These foxes light the way with magical flames and show her where the ice on Lake Suwa is safe to cross. It’s essentially a supernatural GPS system powered by foxes.
Kuniyoshi captures the moment as a dreamlike dance: Yaegaki holding the helmet above her head like a sacred lantern, fox spirits swirling around her, and the garden’s plants, fence, and stone lantern echoed in the series border.
So in Shimonosuwa, the print becomes a shimmering tableau of devotion, magic, and fox‑guided ice travel — proof that when a princess needs to deliver a helmet across a frozen lake, divine wildlife will absolutely step in to help.
For an excellent analysis of the prints and series, I would encourage you to get the book:The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido by Sarah E. Thompson.