Hara-juku (Tōkaidō)

Hara-juku in the 1830s, as depicted by Hiroshige in the Hoeido edition of The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1831-1834)

Hara-juku (原宿, Hara-juku) was the thirteenth of the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō. It is located in the present-day city of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

History

Hara-juku was a smaller post town on the coast of Suruga Bay between Numazu-juku and Yoshiwara-juku in Suruga Province. It is the site of many paintings because of Mount Fuji in the background.

The classic ukiyoe print by Ando Hiroshige (Hoeido edition) from 1831-1834 depicts two women travelers walking past a huge snowy Mount Fuji. The women are accompanied by a manservant who is carrying their luggage. By contrast, the Kyōka edition of the late 1830s depicts three small teahouses, dwarfed by a huge, red Mount Fuji which protrudes out of the picture into the top margin.

Neighboring post towns

Tōkaidō

Numazu-juku - Hara-juku - Yoshiwara-juku

References

• Carey, Patrick. Rediscovering the Old Tokaido:In the Footsteps of Hiroshige. Global Books UK (2000). ISBN 1-901903-10-9
• Chiba, Reiko. Hiroshige's Tokaido in Prints and Poetry. Tuttle. (1982) ISBN 0-8048-0246-7
• Taganau, Jilly. The Tokaido Road: Travelling and Representation in Edo and Meiji Japan. RoutledgeCurzon (2004). ISBN 0-415-31091-1