The Fifty Three Stations of the Tokaido: Utagawa Hiroshige 1833-1834

The Tokaido road, linking the administrative capital of the Japanese Shogunate, Edo, to the imperial capital, Kyoto, was the main travel and transport artery of old Japan. It was also the most important of the ‘Five Roads’ or Gokaido, created or developed under the Tokugawa Shogunate to strengthen the control of the central administration over the entire country.

‘The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido’ (Tokaido Gojusan-tsugi) presented here, is a much celebrated series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first journey along the Tokaido from Edo to Kyoto in 1832. It was published in Edo between 1833-1834 and is known as the Hoeido edition.

The Hoeido edition of the Tokaido is Hiroshige’s most celebrated work, as well as the best-selling ukiyo-e series of all time.

70 full colour woodblock illustrations with one map