Antique 19th c Woodblock Print – Hiroshige – Yoshiwara: The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō

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Condition Report: Overall condition good. Size 11.5 x 7.4cm

Yoshiwara: Mount Fuji on the Left (Yoshiwara, hidari Fuji), from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi), also known as the First Tôkaidô or Great Tôkaidô

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次, Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi), in the Hōeidō edition (1833–1834), is a series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tōkaidō in 1832.^[1]

The Tōkaidō road, linking the shōgun‘s capital, Edo, to the imperial one, Kyōto, was the main travel and transport artery of old Japan. It is also the most important of the “Five Roads” (Gokaidō)—the five major roads of Japan created or developed during the Edo period to further strengthen the control of the central shogunate administration over the whole country.

Even though the Hōeidō edition is by far the best known, The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō was such a popular subject that it led Hiroshige to create some 30 different series of woodcut prints on it, all very different one from the other by their size (ōban or chuban), their designs or even their number (some series include just a few prints).

The Hōeidō edition of the Tōkaidō is Hiroshige’s best known work, and the best sold ever ukiyo-e Japanese prints.^[2] Coming just after Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, it established this new major theme of ukiyo-e, the landscape print, or fūkei-ga, with a special focus on “famous views”.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/25600/yoshiwara-mount-fuji-on-the-left-yoshiwara-hidari-fuji-from-the-series-fifty-three-stations-of-the-tokaido-road-tokaido-gojusan-tsugi-no-uchi-also-known-as-the-hoeido-tokaido