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Description
The Nikko area in the mountains north of Edo/Tokyo is famous for autumn colors and for the many waterfalls that feed into Lake Chuzenji. In this view Hannya is on the right and the higher Hoto at left. Chikanobu shows two elegantly dressed ladies, one of whom is getting out of a palanquin as the bearer points to the sights. From a thatched pavilion a woman brings a tray with two cups of tea, to refresh the tourists. At left two hikers rest; one leans on his walking stick while the other prepares a pipe of tobacco. The contrast in social class is interesting, with the urbane and overdressed female tourists from Tokyo, the local travelers who are much more in tune with their setting and the local service industry workers, but all seem to be enjoying the fall foliage and natural beauty of the landscape. The retired U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant visited Nikko for 8 days in 1879, touring the lakes and seeing the many temples and shrines, thus highlighting Nikko as a tourist destination. In 1888 Chikanobu designed another Nikko meisho print depicting a "True View of the Urami Waterfalls" / Urami no taki shinkei. The use of the word "true view" / shinkei suggests that the artist had visited the area and was representing an accurate view of the landscape, but that scene is rather non-specific as it shows six stylishly dressed women who seem uninterested in the waterfall and their rocky wooded setting. Chikanobu would again depict Nikko in 1897 in the last three views of the series "Chiyoda Outer Palace / Chiyoda no on-omote," where he depicts the annual shogunal procession to visit the Tokugawa memorials. Chikanobu may have been part of such a pilgrimage in the 1850-60's, but his landscape print views are so generalized that it does not indicate he did sketches at these sites in the 1880-90's.
Women Men (male humans) Kimonos Lanterns (lighting devices) Waterfalls (natural bodies of water) Hats Pipes (smoking equipment) Sandals Japanese maple Built works Palanquins Ukiyo-e Print
Time Period
Meiji (Japan, 1869-1912)
Source
Woodcuts; Ink on Paper; 14 in. x 18 13/16 in. (35.56 cm x 47.78 cm); accession number 98.4.10
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