Yui Satsuta Pass

The Yui-Satta Pass (薩埵峠) was one of the most perilous and visually striking sections of the old Tokaido road in Shizuoka Prefecture, where the route traversed steep cliffs above Suruga Bay with open views of Mount Fuji rising across the water. Hiroshige immortalized this location in his Tokaido series, establishing it as a canonical [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) subject. Gihachiro Okuyama (1907–1981), working in the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) tradition, brings his own formal sensibility to this celebrated viewpoint. The composition captures the dramatic topography—cliffs dropping sharply to the sea, pine trees clinging to rocky outcrops—with Mount Fuji visible in the distance over the water. Okuyama's precise carving and controlled color gradation convey spatial depth, balancing the strong geometric forms of the cliffs against atmospheric treatment of sky and bay. The print situates Okuyama's work within the long tradition of depicting this passage as both a physical threshold and a scenic emblem of the Tokaido route.