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Arashiyama in Snow
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858)
19th century
- Medium
- Ink and color on silk
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- H x W (image): 34.7 × 38.5 cm (13 11/16 × 15 3/16 in)
- Culture
- Japanese
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Appreciated for its seasonal beauty, the steep, wooded slope of Arashiyama at the Oi River has long been a favorite scenic place in Kyoto. The beauty of blossoming cherry trees in spring and red maples in autumn were appreciated by Kyoto residents who made excursions to Arashiyama in fine weather. Here the artist Hiroshige has represented the mountain in winter. The subtlety of his painting is enhanced by his use of an East Asian painting technique that leaves the light-colored silk unpainted to represent white snow. Hiroshige is best known for his landscape prints of famous places in Edo and along the Tokaido, the great road between Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto.
