The Station of Hodogaya

This is a print from one of the most famous series of Hokusai called Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji. Hodogaya is a part of the well-known fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō road; the most important road which connects the capitals of each of the provinces that made up the region in the Edo period. Travelers are making their way while seeing the stable Fuji in the back through the old pine trees which were planted along the highway as shade and shelter for them. The use of trees and the perspective successfully contrasts the immobile Fuji and the gentle rhythm of the lined up pine trees and the limping pace of the travelers (Met Museum). Western artists including Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne could have seen Hokusai’s Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji at the famous exhibition of Japanese prints held in 1890 in Paris, and this use of trees in the Station of Hodogaya was likely referred to paintings by those two artists (Lambourne, 51).