Hakone - 箱根

This landscape print depicts Hakone, the mountainous resort area southwest of Tokyo centered on a volcanic crater lake, celebrated since the Edo period for its hot springs, mountain scenery, and views of Mount Fuji across the Ashigara Range. A second impression of this composition, it likely shows misty mountain ridges, the still surface of Lake Ashi, or one of the mountain passes traversed by travelers on the Tōkaidō road. Kiyochika applies his characteristic atmospheric diffusion to a landscape context: morning mist or cloud cover softening the contours of the mountains in graduated bokashi passages that recall the atmospheric washes of Western watercolor. Comparison with the primary impression may reveal differences in the blue-gray gradations used for distant peaks or in the rendering of water and vegetation in the foreground.