Kanaya, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)"
- Date:
- c. 1806
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
Kanaya, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi), is a small [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) print designed by Katsushika Hokusai around 1801. The Kanaya station, located in present-day Shizuoka, sat on the western bank of the Oi River, one of the most challenging crossings on the great highway, and Hokusai's sheet uses the location to suggest the practical character of a post-town adjacent to a major obstacle. Travelers gather in the foreground in groupings that imply the rhythm of arrival and preparation, while station buildings and surrounding terrain anchor the place geographically. The print's modest sheet size and restrained palette suit the early-nineteenth-century print culture in which compact Tokaido sets circulated for Edo readers curious about the road between the shogun's capital and Kyoto. As an Edo ukiyo-e print, the design illustrates Katsushika Hokusai's structural method for treating each station as a documented place rendered through clear arrangement of road, architecture, and figure. The impression is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. For collectors and students of ukiyo-e print history, Hokusai's Kanaya is a useful early example of how the artist handled stations defined by their proximity to natural obstacles, anticipating the more dramatic landscape encounters that would distinguish his great Fuji and waterfall series decades later in his career.
1821
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
c. 1832
Color woodblock print; oban
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Kanaya, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)" was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in c. 1806.
Yes — Kanaya, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)" is part of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido series by Katsushika Hokusai.
Kanaya, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)" depicts landscapes and tōkaidō.