Miyagino, Hakone, c. 1910.

“View of Miyagino”, Hakone, c. 1910.

“The road, which branches left, goes to Hakone Lake. That at the right soon crosses a rushing streamlet, and at a point where Miyanoshita is seen far below, enters a pine grove and later traverses a region studded with cherry trees and Spanish chestnuts. At Gora, a crossroad leads down the slope to Miyagino.

“Bearing to the left, the clear trail follows the contour of the hill, now up, now down, over a district flecked with many small white (poisonous) flowers of the wild rosemary; the shrubs turn red in autumn and develop narcotic properties injurious to sheep.

“Entering a broken region (3478 ft.) smelling of sulphur, the road leads to the Ojigoku (or o-waki-dani — ‘valley of the great boiling’), so-called from the subterraneous fires which make their presence known by a few thin wisps of steam and offensive gases. Hot water is piped to some of the native bath-houses farther down the valley.”

– Terry’s Japanese Empire, T. Philip Terry, 1914