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Kiga Spa, Hakone
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz, 1881, Photograph
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of 593
Kiga Spa, Hakone
Kiga Spa, Hakone
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Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
15136
Title
Kiga Spa, Hakone
Description
A small village of wooden houses nestles in a valley beside a small river. The buildings all have sloping roofs and are built closely together. A three-storey building is visible at the centre of the village. Dense forest covers the sloping hills on either side of the village and there is a small enclosed garden visible outside it.
Artist / maker
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz
Date
1881
Size
19.5 x 24 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Art and Design Library
This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.
This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers.
The village of Kiga was famous during the Edo and Meiji Periods for its hot springs and was popular with Japanese people living in cities as well as with foreigners. Kiga Spa prospered along with the seven other spas in Hakone. Kiga was one of the favourite hot springs of Erwin Bälz (1849-1913), a German anthropologist who became personal physician to the Japanese imperial family, and who is now considered as one of the fathers of modern Japanese medicine. Kiga Spa was also a popular place among artists, photographers and printers. For instance, the Victoria and Albert Museum owns a woodblock print by famous artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) entitled 'Kiga Hot Springs', from the series 'Tour of the Seven Hot Springs Resorts in Hakone' (c.1850).
This photograph was taken from what is today KKR Hakone Summer house. In 1889, a new road to Miyagino opened and in 1892, a great fire destroyed most of the hotels and spa facilities in Kiga. As the new road is not visible on this photograph, it is possible to date it from before 1889.
The river in the centre of the photograph is the Hayakawa River and from the village flows in another river, the smaller Suzawa River. The Suzawa River divided the village into two areas: the Miyagino side where one could find the Kameya and Yuyouin hotels and the Miyanoshita side where the Shobuyu and Sengokuya inns would receive travellers.
On this photograph, the Sengokuya inn is visible in the foreground on the left. Behind it, slightly further at the back of the village, is a smaller building with a white wall called Chokairo and belonging to the Matsuzakaya Inn. On the right-hand side of the village is Kameya Inn, which was the most prominent Japanese-style hotel in Kiga. Its gardens and fountains were famous for their beauty. Unfortunately, the whole inn was destroyed in the great fire of 1892 and was never re-built.
At the back of the village (not visible on this photograph) was a large torii gate leading to Yakushido, a Buddhist temple. The building housed a statue of the Buddha of healing, a symbol associated with the therapeutic properties of the hot springs. In the background of the picture is the Usui Pass and one of the outer mountain ranges of Hakone, the Myojingadake.
The area of Hakone is still famous today for its hot springs and the quality of its water.
Exhibitions with this item
Views and Costumes of China & Japan
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Japan
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