Читать книгу Through Japan with Brush & Ink - Chiura Obata - Страница 9

§ 8. Odawara Station on the Tokaido

How Hiroshige loved these pines! Pine trees were the bone and sinew of "The Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido." Of endlessly fascinating forms and shapes these pine trees are a source of wonder to the traveler. However, many of them were felled during the Second World War for fuel, and we find only here in this particular scene a portion of the grove in its original unspoiled state, very much as it must have looked in Hiroshige's time.

§ 9. Koki-an in the Rain

Koki-an in Odawara is one of the three famous teahouses built by the minister and art-lover, Yamagata Aritomo. His other two masterpieces, the Murin'an and Chinzanso, are in Kyoto and Tokyo respectively. Here at Koki-an what makes the traveler stand spellbound are the abundant waters sluicing down from the Hakone mountains in the background, plus a magnificent view of Sagami Bay to the east.