Kanbara

Of the 55 prints that make up the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, those that depict the effects of the weather (such as rain, fog, wind and snow) are among the most evocative, and demonstrate most dramatically Hiroshige's skill as a woodblock print artist.

Kanbara is the most popular print in the series, and is regarded by many as Hiroshige's best work. This winter scene shows the mountains, trees, and buildings blanketed in snow. Yet the journey Hiroshige took along the Tokaido which inspired this series took place in summer. In other words, this scene is a product of Hiroshige's imagination. In fact, as Peggy and Denis Warner, authors of The Great Road: Japan's Highway to the Twentieth Century, point out, even in wintertime snow rarely falls at Kanbara.

Hiroshige often exaggerates the size or shape of natural features or even changes their location in his prints, but perhaps Kanbara is the most striking example of his application of that great prerogative of the artist, artistic licence.

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