• View of Hakone (<i>Hakone no zu</i>: 箱根之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi</i>: 東海道五十三次之内)
View of Hakone (<i>Hakone no zu</i>: 箱根之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi</i>: 東海道五十三次之内)
View of Hakone (<i>Hakone no zu</i>: 箱根之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi</i>: 東海道五十三次之内)
View of Hakone (<i>Hakone no zu</i>: 箱根之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (<i>Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi</i>: 東海道五十三次之内)

Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

View of Hakone (Hakone no zu: 箱根之図) from the chuban series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi: 東海道五十三次之内)

Print


ca 1838
Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada (香蝶楼国貞)
Publisher: Sanoya Kihei
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - published by Moriya Kihei
National Diet Library - published by both Moriya Jihei and Sanoya Kihei
Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
British Museum - Hiroshige's 'Hakone, kosui zu 箱根湖水圖 (Hakone: Picture of the Lake)'
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art - they date their copy to 1836
Bryn Mawr
Honolulu Museum of Art
The Spencer Museum of Art
Hakone Town Local Museum (via Cultural Heritage Online) Hakone is about 9 miles from Odawara

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In Hiroshige: an exhibition of selected prints and illustrated books by Sebastian Izzard it says on page 23: "Whilst one cannot actually see Fuji from Lake Ashi, its placement here must be attributed to artistic license. Not only does it balance the central massif, but it also gives a sense of distance to the design."

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This is number eleven in the series. The curatorial files at the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna say: "Here the 10th station Hakone. The landscape representation and the use of colors is similar to that of Hiroshige. Hardly anything can be seen of the daimyō train (daimyō gyōretsu 行列 行列) that makes its way between the mountains."

Gian Carlo Calza in his description in Hiroshige: The Master of Nature of the original Hiroshige print re-imagined in this scene said: "Hakone is one of the most famous prints in the series. The view opens onto Lake Ashi, ringed by mountains with Fuji's snowy peak lording over all of them in the background. But it is the patches of colour, the browns and yellows set amongst the greys of the rock, the green meadows and blue mountains wreathed in haze, that have always given this print its special enchantment.

The procession accompanying the shōgun's gift horses to the emperor, whose travelling hats are mainly all we see, is descending from the mountains toward the lake after the rugged climb up from the Odawara river crossing."

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In Tokaido Landscapes: The Path from Hiroshige to Contemporary Artists, 2011, 11, p. 23, speaking of the original Hiroshige print it says in a text by Sasaki Moritoshi: "The Hakone Pass is the most arduous stretch of the Tokaido. A rocky peak towers over the center of the print, below which a daimyo's procession descends to the west through a ravine. On the left is Lake Ashi. the mountain is often identified as Mount Futago. Here it has a marvelous appearance that is inconceivable in reality. Depicted a s a stack of rugged rock slabs, colored in a mosaic pattern, the mountain brings to mind Chinese landscape painting. Perhaps it was Hiroshige's intention to liken the actual landscape of Hakone to the earthly paradises depicted in Chinese paintings."

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In Hiroshige: l'art du voyage, Paris, 2012, p. 63 it says that the artist took the work of from 1820 of Yashima Gakutei in his Sansui kikan kyōkashū (山水奇観狂歌集) as source for this image of Hakone. They also comment on the multi-colored look of the prominent mountain in the center of the image as looking like marquetry (yosegizaiku - 寄せ木細工), a specialty even today of the craftsmen at Hakone.

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In Masterworks of Ukiyo-e: Hiroshige, the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō by Muneshige Narazaki. 1969, p. 40 it says: "To Japanese desirous of viewing beautiful scenes, the mountains of Hakone would have made little appeal - for eons of exposure to wind, rain, and snow have created jagged summits too harsh to be considered, in older times, beautiful. Now, of course, Hakone, with its hot-spring baths, is a very popular resort the year round; in Hiroshige's day, it was extremely difficult mountain pass. The long line of travelers seen walking through the narrow valley may be presumed to be the procession of the Edo shogunate bringing horses as a gift to the emperor in Kyoto. It was this annual procession that Hiroshige, in the early summer of 1832, was permitted to join, thus making his first trip along the Tōkaidō."

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Illustrated in a small color reproduction in Kunisada's Tokaido: Riddles in Japanese Woodblock Prints by Andreas Marks, Hotei Publishing, 2013, page 64, T24-11.
Sanoya Kihei (佐野屋喜兵衛) (publisher)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)