Morning Mist at Mishima

Only the traveler on horseback and the palanquin party in the foreground are drawn in clear color and line, while the row of houses, the torii, and the trees behind them dissolve into the mist as gray shadows. By printing only the forms faintly without outlines, the print creates a sense of damp air and depth.

The palanquin party is heading toward Hakone, while the figures fading in the mist at the back left are going the opposite way, toward Numazu. It is a moment in which travelers who left their inns before dawn pass each other in the mist.

The torii at the back right belongs to Mishima Myojin (present-day Mishima Taisha). Mishima-juku lay at the western foot of Hakone Pass and bustled with travelers before and after crossing the pass. Deliberately hiding the lively post station in mist shows Hiroshige's ingenuity in depicting weather.

For the mist, a pale gray block without outlines is used, and the farther the object, the lighter the color. Because the indigo of the kimono and the green of the loads of the foreground figures are distinct, the depth of the mist in the background stands out all the more. As the title Morning Mist says, the whole picture conveys the chill air of the hour before the sun rises.