Hakone; The Lake (Kosui)
ca. 1833-1834
Utagawa Hiroshige masterfully captures the grueling climb up the Hakone pass in this stunning woodblock print from his famous Tōkaidō series. Tiny travelers wind their way up the steep, lush mountainside, dwarfed by the dramatic landscape that stretches out to reveal Lake Ashi and the iconic silhouette of Mount Fuji in the distance. This print was part of a wildly popular travel guide for Edo-period Japan, essentially the 19th-century equivalent of a viral travel blog that inspired everyone from Van Gogh to modern tourists.
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