Utagawa Kuniyoshi Production date:1844-47 The fighting scene of Shirai Gompachi with a kumosuke (the freelance porter) at Suzu-ga-mori Execution Ground located near the Shinagawa post station is illustrated. Shirai Gompachi is one of the main characters in a kabuki play and known as a beautiful murder who keeps committing robberies and killing on the street.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Production date:1844-47 The red handrail illustrated at the foreground is Nihonbashi Bridge, the starting point of the Toukaidou Highway. The bridge is illustrated with the Edo Castle on the left and Mt. Fuji on the right, the typical composition to express the bridge.

This is a part of the Toukaidou series ukiyo-e, but unlike the other works that focus on the landscapes and views of post stations, in this series the scenes based on legends, tales, kabuki drama, and joururi plays that relate to each post station are illustrated. On the upper part of each work, an explanatory note is written and the picture relates to the notes is illustrated on the lower half. This series was rare since three very popular artists from Utagawa School, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi and Kunisada (Toyokuni III) were all involved to produce the series together. Furthermore, six publishers were collaborated to produce this series. (In this exhibition, works by Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kuniyoshi are displayed.)

Keisai Eisen The production date: c.1833 (c.Tempou 4) Since the theme of this series of the Toukaidou Highway was bijin-ga or the portraits of beautiful women, this is commonly known as “Toukaidou with Beauties”. The Torii gate located at the left side of the background is Ichi-no-Torii or the first Torii-gate of Enoshima Island, which was located at the Fujisawa post station. The illustrated woman is dressed in a travel outfit.　 At the right side of a lady in a travel outfit, a short verse related to this post station is written.

Katsushika Hokusai Date of production unknown No publisher’s seal 30 years before Hiroshige I, Hokusai already initiated producing several series of the Toukaidou Highway. However, he never traveled along the Toukaidou Highway until Bunka 9. It is considered that Hokusai produced the series based on the series of “Meisho-zue (Guides to Famous Places)” that introduced the geographical features, cultures and histories of many famous places by pictures, which were published during Edo period. In Hiroshige I’s series of “Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou Highway (Hoeidou version)”, the work that brought him a recognition as a landscape artist and published during 1833 to1834 (Tempou 3-4), Hiroshige situated the portraits of scenic view as the main motif. On the contrary to Hiroshige, Hokusai produced many works that focused more on the customs of travelers and post stations. In this work, porters carrying a load and their supervisor are illustrated. The scene is illustrated lively as if audience can hear the porter’s running cadence.

Ariyama Teijirou The production date:1892 Ariyama Teijirou was a lithograph artist active during Meiji period. He was also a print engineer of the lithograph and many works remain till today. This work, with a woman illustrated at the foreground and the scenery of Enoshima Island on the background was produced as a souvenir for the tourists. In the lithograph works, the pressure of artist’s brushworks and the way artist uses the brush can be traced to the printed works and this characteristic especially appears at the shading technique of the background landscape. Since the expression of the perspective with gradation and tone was similar the traditional ink paining, this newly arrived technique was easily matched the sensibility of many artists.

Utagawa Kuniaki The production date:1862 In this picture, the patterns of kimono represent the characteristics of the thieves. Tadanobu Rihei, who was known for his special ability to disappear suddenly like a magic is represented by dragon pattern. Akaboshi Jyuza is represented by the morning star “Ake-no Myoujou” (Venus), which is related to his name Akaboshi. Nangou Rikimaru’s violent and wild personality is represented by the lightning and an imaginal beast called raijyu patterns. Nihon Daemon is represented with the bird of prey, which is about to capture the small bird, and Benten Kozou Kikunosuke is represented with chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum is kiku in Japanese.) pattern. Benten Kozou was acted by Ichikawa Uzaemon III, and the kimono’s thunderbolt pattern is arranged to spiral pattern, which is related to the actor’s pattern. The Dandy Villains: Shiranami Five Thieves Shiranami in Japanese literally means ”white waves” and it indicates thief. Shiranami Five Thieves appeare in a kabuki play “Aoto-Zoushi Hana no Nishiki-e (The Glorious Picture Book of Aoto’s Exploits)” and one of the five thieves is Benten Kozou Kikunosuke, who has a connection with Enoshima Island since he worked at the temple of Enoshima when he was a boy. The other thieves are Nihon Daemon, who was the head of a bandit and inspired by the famous thief Ishikawa Goemon, Tadanobu Rihei who had power to appear or disappear freely, a beautiful boy thief Akaboshi Jyuzaburou and rowdy thief Nangou Rikimaru. They were very popular as the dandy antiheros among people since they were not entirely evil, although they stole things from the wealthy people.