The scene of Fude-sute Mountain situated in front of the Saka-no-shita post station is illustrated. This place was known for its grate view of Fude-sute Mountain across the Suzuka River. The name Fude-sute deviated from a historical story of Kano Motonobu, who was a notable artist of the Muromachi period. When he tried to sketch this mountain, the weather avoided him to draw the mountain every time he tried. Since he gave up drawing and threw away the brush, the name of the mountain became Fude-sute (“fude-sute” means “throw away a brush”).

Utagawa HiroshigeⅡ 1860

Utagawa　Hiroshige 1855 Mariko post station was famous with the yam soup. In the picture, there are many shops that put up the signboards of “Yam Soup”. In a shop, which is illustrated on the left, many pictures that look like ukiyo-e are displayed on the wall, and this depiction illustrates that ukiyo-e was popular among ordinary people in this period. The series, “Views of Famous Places of Fifty-three Stations of the Toukaidou” was produced in 1855, when Hiroshige was 59 years old, and this is his last Toukaidou series. This series is also called “The Toukaidou in Vertical Pictures” since it is produced as the series of vertical pictures. It is considered the vertical composition is not suitable for landscape pictures since it is difficult to find the good balance in the space. However Hiroshige, the master of landscape pictures used this composition in a distinctive way, created the masterpiece series.

Utagawa Hiroshige 1855 At the vertical picture series, Shigitatsu-sawa and the view of vertically stretches out Sagami Bay is illustrated. The bird’s eye view composition broadens the view.

Utagawa Hiroshige Production date:1844-47 The lady looks up to Mt. Fuji is a maid Okaru, one of the character of a kabuki play “Kana-dehon Chushingura (The Revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin)”. The illustrated place is a slope of Tostuka, and Okaru is on her way to elope with her lover Hayano Kampei. Kana-dehon Chushingura” was written based on the historical incident that took place in the Edo period. However, it was prohibited to use the real incident of the time for the story of kabuki, it was performed as “the story of Kamakura period”. 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.)