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蒲原
​夜之雪

雪の風景を描いています。蒲原はなら~鎌倉時代から朱駅として発展した所で、慶長6年(1601)に本格的な宿場としてせいびされた、富士川の渡河を控えたかなり大きな宿場でした。
本陣(1)脇本陣(3)旅籠屋(42)
​名物(富士見餅、栗粉餅、あわび)

Kambara

This print, which was executed almost entirely in shades of black, with white patches left for the snow, is doubtless the best single print in the Tokaido series and one of the best woodblock prints ever made in Japan. Unlike most of Hiroshige's landscapes, however, it is almost entirely imaginary. People have searched the undistinguished scenery of Kambara time and again for the location pictured here, but no such place appears to exist. Furthermore,
it rarely snows in this area at all, and it could not have snowed when Hiroshige saw it, since he passed through in early summer.
This picture, then, emphasizes the important fact that Hiroshige, though
inspired by nature, was no slave to it. Even though salient features of the landscape are recognizable in most of the Tokaido prints, it is clear that the artist sought variety to the extent of selecting times and seasons and climates that he could hardly have witnessed. The snow scene shown here could well have been placed at almost any other point on the Tokaido, and the topography was doubtless determined by the composition Hiroshige desired. It is significant that the other out-and out masterpiece in the series, "Shono," is equally imaginary.

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しんしんと降り積もる雪。
山も街道も宿場町も雪に覆われ
​静寂が世界を包み込んでいます。
蒲原の気候は温暖で、
実際は雪深い土地ではありませんでした。

それを広重は一面の雪景色に変え、
宿場の名所や名物を描きこまずに、
​忘れ難い一枚に仕上げたのです。

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雪灯りでぼぅっと浮かび上がった夜道を、3人の人物画歩いています。
​右は二人連れで、菅笠に合羽やみのを付けた男性たちの頭や背中には雪が真っ白に積もっており、寒さをこらえて長時間歩いてきたことを物語っています。

 

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