Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige
Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4)

Oiso and Hiratsuka, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou
In this picture, the landscape from the Hiratsuka post station to the Oiso post station is illustrated. The “Morokoshi-ga-hara” (Today’s “Tou-ga-hara”) is illustrated at the lower right of the picture. It is said, a group of people from Korean Peninsula moved into this place during 5th century. The mountain illustrated at the right upper part is Kouraiji-san (Mt. Kourai Temple) and its name came from the temple that enshrines Koma-no-Jakkou who came to Japan from an ancient kingdom of Korean Peninsula, Koukuri. At the upper left side from the mountain, there is the land that extends to the Oiso post station and Shigitachi-zawa.

This is an e-baisho (anthology of the seventeen syllables Japanese haiku poems with related pictures) that a variety of poems written by the notable contemporary poets from the haikai poetry circles are allotted with the pictures of famous places of the Toukaidou, as a hokku-shu (anthology hokku or haiku poems ) appears in pictures. This series was the changed title version of “Toukaidou Meisho Hokku-shu (The Hokku-shu of Famous Places of the Toukaidou)”, published by Eiraku-ya Jousuke in 1851, and originally the format of this picture was hanpon or book style. However when this version was made, the landscapes of Edo to Izu were re-edited as a gajou (folded picture book) format, thus the readers can appreciate each landscape as the independent picture. When Hiroshige produced this work, he was also commissioned to paint nikuhitsu-ga (paintings) from Tendou clan. Therefore the expressions such as the composition with natural dimension and bluish pale touch of the color in this series are influenced from the painting expressions.

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige
December of 1852 (Kaei 5), Publisher: Sanoki, one of the series of thirty-six

This work is from the series of Tirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, and this is the one of the thirty six series. The impressive composition of Mt. Fuji is illustrated. Mt. Fuji covered with the white snow is situated between Koyurugi cape and Enoshima Island, appears among the exaggeratedly wild waves of a windy day across the Shichiri-ga-hama Beach. The high tides that create the strong crash of foams are contrasted with the tranquility of Mt. Fuji. The flock of bird flies across the sky that is vaguely colored in scarlet. It is considered the scenery of Shichiri-ga-hama Beach from Inamura-ga-saki cape. Hiroshige situated the lower viewpoint in order to emphasis the high tides of the waves. Beside of this series, there is a series “Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji” that deals with the views of Mt. Fuji, published in his latest year in 1859 (Ansei 6).

Utagawa Hiroshige
Kansei 9~Ansei 5 (1799~1858)
Hiroshige was a pupil of Utagawa Toyohiro. He also studied varieties of painting styles from Kano school, nan-ga (southern Chinese painting style), and Shijō school. He was active as an ukiyo-e artist from Bunsei 1 to his death (1818~1858). He first produced pictures of beautiful women, Kabuki actors and worriers, but from the Tempō era he was acknowledged as a leading landscape artist. He published many pictures of famous places such as the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido”. Hiroshige’s the other fortes were kachoga (picture of birds and flowers) and animal pictures.