Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) depicted beautiful landscapes. Hiroshige is always compared with Hokusai though he studied in the Utagawa School under Toyohiro. People say, Hiroshige's pictures are tranquil, while Hokusai's are motive.
Hiroshige depicted many pictures with the poetic overtones of the beautiful Japanese seasonal cycle-rain, wind, snow, birds and flowers.
Hiroshige took a trip from Edo (nowadays Tokyo) to Kyoto in Tenpo 3 (1832), and on the way to Kyoto and on the way home, he took a great amount of sketches of beautiful scenery along the road called "Tokaido." After the trip, he drew 53 Ukiyoe called "Tokaido 53-tsugi" or Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. The set was greatly successful.
The To-kaido was one of the five kaido, main roads starting from Edo, and it was the most important road among them (five keido: tokaido, nakasendo, koushukaido, nikkokaido, and okushukaido) during the Edo era. The Tokaido started from Nihonbashi, Edo through Sanjo-ohhashi, Kyoto, and there were 53 shuku-eki, or accommodation districts on the kaido.
There are many prints or drawings depicting the Tokaido, such as Utagawa Hiroshige's "Tokaido 53-tsugi", Katsushika Hokusai's "53-tsugi", Asai Ryoi's "Tokaido meisho-ki", and Hishikawa Moronobu's "Tokaido bunkan ezu". Among them, Hiroshige's set, consisting of 55 works, is most well-known.
| Works from Hiroshige's 100 Views of Edo |
