Eight Views of Ômi: #1 Evening Snow on Mount Hira

Description

This print and the one adjacent are from a series depicting Omi (present day Shiga Prefecture) in which Hiroshige began his experiments with composition. Evening Snow on Mount Hira depicts the Hira mountain range to the west of Lake Biwa, an area that often experiences harsh winters and strong winds. In this scene, dark silhouettes of travelers, perhaps along the Tôkaidô Road connecting Kyoto and Edo (presentday Tokyo), can be seen trudging through the snow along the edge of the village. A poem focuses the viewer’s attention:
“He who would see the beauty of the evening on the peaks of Hira must behold it after the snows have fallen and before the flowers are fully blown.”
Spring/Summer Gallery Rotation 2015
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“Eight views,” or hakkei in Japanese, is a term traditionally associated in poetry and painting with the most beautiful scenes of a particular area. In this case Hiroshige has chosen Ômi, a province that during the Edo period was a major station along the Tôkaidô Road, famed for views of the nearby Lake Biwa. Today the area is known as Shiga prefecture, and it is Japan’s sister state to Michigan.
In this image a snow-covered village and clumps of bamboo along an inlet of Lake Biwa are dwarfed by the snowy mass of Mount Hira. Dark silhouettes of travelers, perhaps along the Tôkaidô Road, can be seen trudging through the snow along the edge of
the village. A poem focuses the attention of the viewers:

He who would see the beauty of the evening on the peaks of Hira must behold it after the snows have fallen and before the flowers are fully blown.
exhibited summer 2010
The snowy mass of Mount Hira rises behind a snow-covered village and clumps of bamboo by an inlet of Lake Biwa. The attendant poem:
He who would see the beauty of the evening on the peaks of
Hira must behold it after the snows have fallen and before the
flowers are fully blown.