MURA · THE COLLECTION · UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE

Snow in the Kiso Mountains

Snow-covered mountains above a river on the Kiso Road, a triptych of colour woodblock prints designed by Utagawa Hiroshige in 1857. It is the snow scene in his late set of three triptychs on snow, moon and flowers. The Cleveland Museum of Art received it in 1930 by bequest from the collector Edward L. Whittemore.

Utagawa Hiroshige · 1857 · Triptych of color woodblock prints · Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · story written 25 September 2026

What you are looking at

The museum catalogues the work as "Mountain and River on the Kiso Road" and writes: "Late in his career, Hiroshige explored the poetic theme of setsugekka, 'snow, moon, and flowers,' in a set of three triptychs. This panoramic scene features a river passing snow-covered mountains along the Kiso Road." Mura's catalogue describes snow-covered mountains rising above a dark blue river in a sweeping landscape. The museum gives the overall size as 36 by 25.2 centimetres.

How it was made

The Kiso Road was not new ground for Hiroshige. According to Wikipedia, "The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō" was printed between about 1835 and 1842 as a joint production with Keisai Eisen, and Hiroshige's share was forty-six of its seventy prints. Two decades later he returned to the route for this single panoramic view. His prints relied on subtle colour, "often printed with multiple impressions in the same area and with extensive use of bokashi (color gradation)". He died in 1858, aged 62, the year after this triptych appeared. The museum places the work in Japan's Edo period (1615–1868).

Where it went

The provenance runs through the Chicago dealer S. H. Mori, who sold the triptych to Edward L. Whittemore of Cleveland by 1925. Whittemore (1862–1930) bequeathed it to the Cleveland Museum of Art, which accessioned it in 1930 as 1930.180, with the credit line Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore. The museum records no exhibition history for it, and it is currently not on view. The other two triptychs of the set reached Cleveland by different routes: the moon scene over Kanazawa as a gift from J. H. Wade in 1921, and the whirlpools of Awa through the same Whittemore bequest of 1930.

Why it is in Mura

It is part of the Japanese Masters collection with the mood "wintry": a cold, wide view that fills a screen the way three sheets fill a wall.