Thursday 19 February 2009

Hakone – Ando Hiroshige

11_Hakone

Plate 11 from Ando Hiroshige’s set of wood block prints of The 53 Stations of the Tokaido.

Basil Stewart’s guide to Hiroshige describes it (somewhat anachronistically) thus: “A high peak, round the base of which, through a gorge, a daimyo's cortege is wending its way ; on the left the Hakone Lake, with Fuji in the distance. The peak is drawn in a peculiar angular manner, almost cubist in effect, which detracts somewhat from this view.”

Mr Stewart and I disagree somewhat in our evaluation of its merits.  It’s like a much more exuberant Mt Fuji!

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