In Hakone

Hakone, in the mountains southwest of Tokyo, has been a destination for travelers and artists since the Edo period, celebrated for its caldera lake (Ashi-no-ko), hot springs, and views of Mount Fuji. Ohtsu's print likely depicts a Hakone landscape — forested hillsides, a mountain lane, traditional inn architecture, or a lakeside view — rendered in the warm, unsensational palette typical of his practice. While earlier [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous-place pictures) of Hakone, including those by Hiroshige and the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) generation, often emphasized monumental views, Ohtsu's treatment favors more intimate registers: a stand of trees, a roadside, the geometry of a single building set against the slope. Mokuhanga technique permits the layered greens and earth tones characteristic of his mountain work, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations softening transitions between foliage masses and atmospheric distance. The print situates Hakone within Ohtsu's broader documentary impulse: a record of Japanese countryside places experienced not as tourist icons but as the textured, seasonal landscapes inhabited by their residents.