1836
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Shimosuwa, from Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō is a 1836 by Utagawa Hiroshige, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see travelers eating at an inn while another man soaks in a wooden hot-spring tub outside. This print is from a series showing rest stops along a long road between Tokyo and Kyoto. Shimosuwa was the only stop with natural hot springs, so Hiroshige made the steamy bath the star. The innkeeper’s smile and the bather’s relief tell you how good the water felt after a day of walking. Look up more prints in the series *Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaidō* by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858).
This print shows travelers enjoying a meal at an inn, with the innkeeper looking pleased at the guests’ enthusiasm. In the background, another traveler is gratefully relaxing in a wooden tub filled with hot natural spring water, having discarded his robe next to the bath. Shimosuwa was the only stop along the Kisokaidō—a 534-kilometer (332-mile) road running from Nihonbashi in Edo (now Tokyo) to Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto—with a natural hot spring. The print series was a collaboration between Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen (1790–1848).
Read the full account in the museum source.
Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重) or Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重), born Andō Tokutarō (安藤 徳太郎; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
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