Kameyama, Clear Weather after Snow

The artwork

After the snowfall the sky clears, and a procession climbs in single file up a slope all in white, among pines heavy with snow, towards the buildings at the top of the hill. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The white of the snow, the blue of the sky and the grey of the pines.
• A clear winter landscape, which brings light to a living room or an entrance hall.
• A gift for anyone who loves snow, mountains and Japan.

It belongs to the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, the series that made Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), the best loved landscape artist of Japan, famous, published around 1833-1834 by the publisher Hōeidō. The Tōkaidō was the great road that linked Edo, today's Tokyo, with Kyoto, the city of the emperor, with fifty-three post stations where travellers stopped to eat and sleep. Kameyama, a castle town, was one of the last stops before Kyoto.

The procession climbing the hill belongs to a daimyō, a feudal lord. The shōgun, the military ruler who governed Japan, required the daimyō to live in Edo every other year, and this is why their long lines of bearers, servants and guards travelled the Tōkaidō all the time. Hiroshige cuts the scene with a diagonal: the slope rises from left to right, and the small figures seem to struggle at every step. Like the night snow of Kanbara, from the same series, it is one of the rare prints with snow. Our reproduction comes from the impression in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In a living room or an entrance hall it brings the light of a clear day after snow. A gift for anyone who loves Japan.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass