Odawara

Artist

Tamenobu Fujikawa (Japanese, active circa 1910-1920)

Date

1918

Medium

Woodblock print

Dimensions

Sheet : 9 9/16 x 14 in. (24.29 x 35.56 cm)

Credit Line

Hope College Collection

Object Number

2014.13.11

Label

Many inns and rest houses along the Tōkaidō had bathing facilities where travelers could wash and soak away the aches and pains of the road. The inn where Yaji and Kita stop for the night in the town of Odawara has a bathtub with a metal bottom that can be heated directly from a firebox below. Bathers are supposed to submerge a fitted wooden panel to protect their feet from the bathtub’s hot metal floor, but because Yaji and Kita have never seen this type of bathtub before, they remove the panel and wear wooden clogs into the bath instead. Yaji takes his bath with no problems, but when Kita gets in, the bottom of the bathtub gives way and leaves him sitting in an empty tub.