Station #24: Kanaya and the previous station, Shimada, were home to approximately 700 river porters. The Oi River was often treacherous, with raging floods during the June rainy season, so river porters had to be very skillful. There is now a museum there dedicated to their memory and preserving their homes and possessions. When the river flooded, sometimes stretching to weeks, the teahouses of Kanaya and Shimada struggled to accommodate everyone stranded by high water. The heroes of "Shank's Mare" are transported across the Oi after a closure when the river was still deep. "Soon their eyes were dizzy by the sight of the rolling waters of the river." It was about two miles across the Oi River from Shimada to Kanaya.

Image Copyright: Minneapolis Institute of Art