Utagawa Kunisada(Utagawa Toyokuni Ⅲ) 1833 The background landscape is the same composition of “Shimada, Suruga Bank of Oi River” from Hiroshige’s Hoeidou edition of the Toukaidou series. Oi River is a huge river that flows between Shimada post station (Suruga province) and Kanaya post station (Totoumi province), this river was known for its flood disaster. For the travelers, this place was one of the most difficult place to cross and there is even a song to complain about it.

Utagawa Kunisada(Utagawa Toyokuni Ⅲ) 1833 The background landscape is the same composition of “Futagawa, Saru-ga-baba” from Hiroshige’s Hoeidou edition of the Toukaidou series. The scenery of Saru-ga-baba rest place, which was located between Futagawa post station and Shirasuka post station is depicted. Kashiwa-mochi (a rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf) served in this teahouse was a famous specialty.

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III) Production date: 1833 (Tempou 4) “Beauties with Landscapes of the Toukaidou Highway” Known with the more familiar title of “Toukaidou with Beauties”, this series illustrates the beauties with the customs of the related regions at the foreground and the sceneries of fifty-three stations of the Toukaidou on the background. This series has a special feature that the background sceneries are based on the “Hoeidou Edition of the Toukaidou Highway” series produced by Utagawa Hiroshige. Although the sceneries illustrated from Miya post station to Kyoto (Although Yokkaichi post station is the only exception) are produced based on Kunisada’s original designs.

Utagawa Kunisada(Utagawa Toyokuni Ⅲ) 1833 After Miya post station, the background landscapes are changed to Kunisada’s original landscape, but the background of Yokkaichi post station is the only exception. In this picture, Kunisada used the background of “Yokkaichi, Mie River” from Hoeidou edition of Hiroshige’s Toukaidou series. Mie River flew the center of the Yokkaichi post station. Across the meadow, extended ocean is illustrated and the masts of the ships dock at the port are illustrated at the left on the back of the rows of houses. A young woman is illustrated with the customs of married woman by shaving her eyebrow and tinting her teeth in black. In the Hiroshige’s Hoeidou edition’s work, the sedge-woven hat blown by wind was located right near the traveler, but in this picture, hat is blown away in a distance across a woman illustrated at the foreground.

Artist: Utagawa Yoshitsuya Production date: 1863 (Bunkyu 3) The Toukaidou: Hodogaya At the upper part the workers from inns are all lined, and the procession is passing through in front of them. At the bonfire, people from the procession light the smoking pipes. The black part at the bonfire was originally printed with vivid vermilion color but it turn into black because of the oxidation of the vivid orange pigment tan.   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.

Utagawa Yoshikazu The production date: 1853 (Kaei 6) Two men at Kusatsu post station are eating petite size local sweet, “Uba-ga-mochi (Antie’s Dumpling)”, the dumpling with the sweet bean paste inside. It seems two men already ate quite a lot of the dumplings, and especially a man sitting on the right seems full. At Kyoto, a woman standing at the Sanjou Ohashi Bridge, the destination of the Toukaidou Highway, is “Oharame”, the women venders unique to Kyoto region. They dressed in a distinctive ways such as wrapping a towel like cloth called tenugui around their head. They sold their products, such as fire wood and they put their products on their head as they walked around. Many Utagawa school ukiyo-e artists published the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway”. In this distinctive series, Yoshikazu introduced the legends and episodes that related to the post stations of the Toukaidou Highway humorously. Generally, he produced humorous pictures with horizontal small ko-ban size format. Utagawa Yoshikazu Date of birth and death unknown Yoshikazu was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and active from the Kaei era till Meiji 3 (1848~1870). He also used the artist names such as Shunsai and Ichikawa. He produced many worrier pictures, kacho-ga (pictures of birds and flowers), and Yokohama-e (ukiyo-e depicting foreigner’s life styles or the scenes of Yokohama). He also produced illustrations of kusa-zoshi (books with illustrations ).

Utagawa Yoshikazu The production date: 1853 (Kaei 6) Otsu Station was famed for rice cake of Miidera Temple called chikara(muscular)-mochi. “With chikara-mochi, you can't lose,” went a popular saying. The print shows the famous Gozu Tenno of Otsu (gozu means “bull-headed,” but this is actually the name of a deva that does not have the head of a bull) performing for travelers by lifting huge stones. The print for Kyoto, the end of the Toukaidou, is a picture of a wedding scene, as if to celebrate the end of the journey. But something seems odd about it. The groom appears to be drunk after downing many cups of sake. The bride, in contrast, steadily digs her chopsticks into a big bowl of rice, with the rice tub in front of her. The woman serving the two looks flustered. Many Utagawa school ukiyo-e artists published the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway”. In this distinctive series, Yoshikazu introduced the legends and episodes that related to the post stations of the Toukaidou Highway humorously. Generally, he produced humorous pictures with horizontal small ko-ban size format. Utagawa Yoshikazu Date of birth and death unknown Yoshikazu was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and active from the Kaei era till Meiji 3 (1848~1870). He also used the artist names such as Shunsai and Ichikawa. He produced many worrier pictures, kacho-ga (pictures of birds and flowers), and Yokohama-e (ukiyo-e depicting foreigner’s life styles or the scenes of Yokohama). He also produced illustrations of kusa-zoshi (books with illustrations ).

Utagawa Yoshikazu The production date: 1853 (Kaei 6) Otsu Station was famed for rice cake of Miidera Temple called chikara(muscular)-mochi. “With chikara-mochi, you can't lose,” went a popular saying. The print shows the famous Gozu Tenno of Otsu (gozu means “bull-headed,” but this is actually the name of a deva that does not have the head of a bull) performing for travelers by lifting huge stones. The print for Kyoto, the end of the Toukaidou, is a picture of a wedding scene, as if to celebrate the end of the journey. But something seems odd about it. The groom appears to be drunk after downing many cups of sake. The bride, in contrast, steadily digs her chopsticks into a big bowl of rice, with the rice tub in front of her. The woman serving the two looks flustered. Many Utagawa school ukiyo-e artists published the series “Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway”. In this distinctive series, Yoshikazu introduced the legends and episodes that related to the post stations of the Toukaidou Highway humorously. Generally, he produced humorous pictures with horizontal small ko-ban size format. Utagawa Yoshikazu Date of birth and death unknown Yoshikazu was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and active from the Kaei era till Meiji 3 (1848~1870). He also used the artist names such as Shunsai and Ichikawa. He produced many worrier pictures, kacho-ga (pictures of birds and flowers), and Yokohama-e (ukiyo-e depicting foreigner’s life styles or the scenes of Yokohama). He also produced illustrations of kusa-zoshi (books with illustrations ).