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The masterpiece arts of Utagawa Hiroshige, “Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido”

Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige led the field of landscape printing in ukiyo-e. Especially, “Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido” is one of the most highly regarded woodblock printings series in Japanese art.

Nihonbashi, the morning (Senkakudo edition)

Nihonbashi, the morning (Houeido edition)

9. Odawara, the travellers crossing Sakawa River

15.Kambara, the snow in the night, by Utagawa Hiroshige

23.Shimada, the crossing Oi River on the horses

24.Kanaya, the distant view of Ooi River

26.Kakegawa, the distant view of Akibayama Mountain

36.Akasaka, the travelers and hostesses at an Inn

40.Narumi, the famous Arimatsu tie-dyed fabrics

41.Miya, the riligious festival at Atsuta Shrine

42.Kuwana, the landing entry of Shichiri ferry

47.Seki, the early deperture from the main camp

50.Minakuchi, the speciality of dried guard shavings

One of the famous landscape ukiyo-e woodblock prints

When he started to draw the paintings around 1833, “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji” , by the most famous ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, depicted the Japanese symbolic mountain was had dominated ukiyo-e market.

Thanks in partly to the popularity of the landscape printings, “Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido” really rang the bell and he became the sought-after artist in Edo Period.

It depicted the state of people and the views of post towns on Tokaido(Edo-Kyoto highway). The distance from Nihonbashi at the departure point to the end point Kyoto is around 500 km. The walking of Edo people for the distance took from 13 to 15 days.

Before working with the series, Hiroshige joined the shogunate’s procession for presenting the horses to the Emperor from Edo to Kyoto and drew the rough sketches of the post towns.

In the series of prints, No.15 ‘Kambara, the snow in the night’ (蒲原　夜之雪) and No.45 ‘Shono, the evening squall’ (庄野白雨) are the most famous artworks. Hiroshige drew various winter scenes of Japanese landscapes and ‘Kambara, the snow in the night’ represents the traditional landscape woodcut prints.

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“Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido” for sale at Amazon

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Books of “Fifty-Three Stages on the Tokaido”

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Hiroshige: The Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido (Paperback)

A fine edition of this scarce volume. Pages are bright, no marks, folds, or tears. Published by The Tokai Bank Foundation, Japan, 1984. Paperback. 24.0 x 25.0cms, 250pp, color illustrations throughout. One page essays on for each print in the series, plus biography. Smaller color images of the Hoeido, Gyoshu and Reisho Editions of the series are also included, as well as extensive notes on each print. Map. English text.