View of Lake Suwa from Shiojiri Pass

Down the steep pass road at right foreground come a traveler on a loaded horse and people carrying loads. To their left spreads Lake Suwa, and horses and people walk across the white frozen surface. On the far shore can be seen a castle and townscape, and beyond them a chain of snow-capped mountains and Mount Fuji.

The lake surface is white with fine lines cut in to show cracks in the ice, leaving indigo water only near the shore. The mountains are drawn in pale gray and white, and the sky is shaded from indigo at the top to white below. By placing the green slope of the pass diagonally in the foreground, the artist creates height through its contrast with the breadth of lake and mountains.

The Shiojiri Pass lies between Shimosuwa and Shiojiri, and the view of Lake Suwa and Mount Fuji from the pass was considered among the finest on the Nakasendo. In winter Lake Suwa froze over entirely, and it is said that people and goods sometimes crossed on the ice. The castle on the far shore is thought to depict Takashima Castle.

This is one of the designs by Keisai Eisen, who handled the first half of the series. As the title "View" indicates, its subject is the scenery from the pass itself. The same design is also at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it is counted among Eisen's representative landscapes.