Utagawa Hiroshige The production date: 1855 (Ansei 2) Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizou At the vertical picture series, viewing Kamakura-yama, which is illustrated on the background, the teahouses of Sakaigi Tateba (rest place) are illustrated. Since all works from this series are the vertical prints, it is generally called “The Toukaidou in Vertical Pictures”. This work was produced in Hiroshige’s late year, when he was fifty-nine. In this series of the views of famous places, almost all post-stations are illustrated in the bird’s-eye-view and the perspective is used to illustrate the rows of houses and streets. At the Hodogaya station, as written in the title, the tateba of Sakaigi or a rest spot located between the Totsuka post station and Hodogaya post stations is illustrated. This place was famous for its great scenic view. The hill seen in a distance is the Kamakura-yama or Mt. Kamakura.

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige This series is called Tsutaya version of the Toukaidou according to the name of the publisher. The scenery is not the Fujisawa Post Station but the Yotsuya, a Tateba or the rest spot between the post stations. Yotsuya was a place where a fork existed that the Tokaidou highway and the road to Mt. Oyama were divided. Therefore, this place was usually crowded with the pilgrims to Mt. Oyama. 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.

Utagawa Hiroshige The production date: c.1844-1848 (c.Kouka era) Hiroshige’s koban size Toukaidou series was rare. In this Horizontal print version, Hiroshige sprinkled his bright compositional ideas. The audience would recognize people walking in a line on a bridge are the pilgrims who had paid homage to Mt. Oyama, since one of them is carrying the omiki-waku (the liquor or water containers). People used omiki-waku to bring liquor or water from Mt. O-yama. The group of people using sticks and walk under the Torii gate are the pilgrims heading to Enoshima Island. The building complex appears among the mountain at the background is Yugyouji Temple.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi/Utagawa hiroshige Production date:1844-47 This is the only collaborated work of Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi in this series. Hiroshige illustrated the Otsu-e, the pictures illustrated inside of the fan-shape frame on the upper part of the picture. Kuniyoshi illustrated the characters from a kabuki play “Keisei Hangonkou (The Courtesan Appears in the Smoke of Incense)”, Matabei and his wife. Matabei is a painter of Otsu-e, but he is not permitted to use his last name since he has a stammering symptom. In this scene, disappointed Matabei decides to commit a suicide but the miracle happens when he draws his self-portrait as his last work at a chouzubachi (a stone vessel used to rinse the hands). Because of his genius artistic talent, the picture moves the other side of the vessel and Matabei is finally permitted to use his last name.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1844-47 Fujiwara no Hidesato, who is also known by the name of Tawara no Tota, was a famous battle commander from the Heian period (794-1185). The depicted scene is a famous episode from Tawara Tota’s life, which is known as “Slaying the Great Centipede''. The woman depicted on the right is a dragon goddess who lives in Lake Biwa who recruited Tota to kill a monstrous centipede. The part of the woman’s hair immersed in the water is depicted as the scales of a dragon.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1844-47 The depicted scene is from a legend about ogre extermination at Mt. Suzuka by Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, the famous general from the Heian Period (794-1185). Protected by Kannon, the goddess of mercy, who is depicted in the upper part of the picture, Lady Suzuka, who wears an Edo period kimono garment (1603-1868) helps Tamuramaro. It seems that the ogre does not notice Tamuramaro, who is trying to kill him.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Production date:1844-47 Since the name “Sasaki Takatsuna” is written right beside the figure on horseback, the illustrated scene seems like an episode of Takatsuna. However, the anecdote illustrated in this picture is Akechi Samanosuke’s (the Samurai of the wartime period, the son-in-low of Akechi Mitsuhide) grate crossing of Lake Biwa on horseback, when he was defeated and all the land routes were blocked by the enemy. During Edo period, when it was prohibited to illustrate the warrior of wartime period, artists used the image of the different episodes to make excuses to the pictures. According to the caption, Ueno Village located near Shono was the place where Takatsuna’s horse “Ikezuki”’s was born.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Production date:1844-47 The picture illustrates the well-known anecdote from “Ise Monogatari (The Tale of Ise)”, the tale and waka poetries established in Heian period. The illustrated scene is the famous scene when an aristocrat, the main character of the story, composes a poem by viewing the beautiful iris flowers in full bloom and sheds tears thinking about his beloved wife who he left at the capital.