Kawanabe Kyousai The production date: 1863 (Bunkyu 3) No publisher’s seal This Toukaidou Highway series was produced based on the historical event of the Fourteenth Tokugawa Shougun Tokugawa Iemochi’s procession from Tokyo to Kyoto that took place in 1863 (Bunkyu 3). Nango was located by a beach of southern part of present day Chigasaki city, and at the northern part of this region, there was a tateba, or a rest spot between the post stations. Nango was famous for the fine pine trees along the Toukaidou Highway and “Hidari-fuji”, the view of Mt. Fuji appears from the left side.

In this picture, the rest spot between post stations tateba of Yotsuya is illustrated. This place was the fork of the Oyama road (the approach to the Shrine of Mt. Oyama), and at the right bottom, there is a road sign “Oyama Road: Go right” is seen. At the background, Mt. Fuji is located next to Mt. Oyama, but this is not the actual landscape.

Utagawa　Yoshimori 1863 A view at a tea house serving Ubaga-mochi (rice cake with boiled red beans sweetened), a local delicacy of Kusatsu Post Station. It looks like the procession, led by a guide, is crossing the bridge and travelers let the procession pass by keeling down on the ground. This series was published with the event of the Fourteenth Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi’s procession from Tokyo to Kyoto (Shogun’s official visit to Emperor) that took place in 1863 (Bunkyu 3) and it is known as “Gojouraku Toukaidou (Samurai’s procession along the Toukaidou Highway)”. Iemochi’s visit was an unusual event since last time Tokugawa Shogun visited Emperor was 229 years ago when the Third Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu visited Emperor. Therefore this event got a huge attention from the people of Edo. This series was very popular that 162 works were produced within this series. Since 16 artists from Utagawa School were involved for the production, it is considered that the publisher wanted to produce many works within a short period of time.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1863 This series was published with the event of the Fourteenth Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi’s procession from Tokyo to Kyoto (Shogun’s official visit to Emperor) that took place in 1863 (Bunkyu 3) and it is known as “Gojouraku Toukaidou (Samurai’s procession along the Toukaidou Highway)”. Iemochi’s visit was an unusual event since last time Tokugawa Shogun visited Emperor was 229 years ago when the Third Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu visited Emperor. Therefore this event got a huge attention from the people of Edo. This series was very popular that 162 works were produced within this series. Since 16 artists from Utagawa School were involved for the production, it is considered that the publisher wanted to produce many works within a short period of time.