Katsushika Hokusai The production date: 1804 (Kyouwa 4/ Bunka1) No Publisher’s seal Hokusai didn’t produce any O-ban (large) size ukiyo-e print in the series of Fifty-three Station of Toukaidou. He usually produced the horizontal Ko-ban (small) size print. Unlike Utagawa Hiroshige, whose main subjects were the scenery and landscape, Hokusai focused more on the travelers’ outfits and the cultures and the customs of each station, and this gave a distinctive taste to his works. When he started to produce the Toukaidou series, he was commissioned by a group of kyouka poets and produced a surimono, a privately issued luxurious work “Spring Event of the Fifty-three Station” with the kyouka poems printed on the right. Let’s closely look at the each station. At “Hodogaya”, a man wipes off the dirt from his horse’s feet after it worked at a muddy field, tells the viewers the arrival of the spring. At “Totsuka”, a scene of departure is illustrated. Two men are about to leave an inn and a woman sends off the men rather sadly. At “Fujisawa”, women travelers are heading to Enoshima Island, and they are about to go through the First Torii Gate of the Enoshima Island. The woman walking at the front is holding a cigarette pipe, and a thread of red cloth is tied to it. It was a charm to avoid small pox, which was a most dangerous disease at that time. The guidepost indicates “From now on, the road of Enoshima”, and from the writing on this post “Kyouwa 4 (1804)”, the production date of this series can be identified. At “Hiratsuka”, the farmers are resting in a tree shade and their tools, such as a mowing sickle and basket are illustrated. The season is the beginning of spring but it seems the air is still chilly. At “Oiso”, there is a man trying to lift a gigantic rock. The word “The Tiger Stone” is inscribed on the Rock. This picture is based on a legend of Tora-gozen, or the Tiger lady from this post station.(Tora-gozen appears on “Soga Monogatari (The Soga Brother’s Story)”, and she was considered to spread this local story nationwide). At “Odawara”, the Uirou vendor and the distant view of Odawara castle are illustrated. “Uirou” is a name of medicine still distributed today and one of the famous products of Odawara. (Uirou is also name of a sweet as well, but the two are different things.) A Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjurou II who has a disease that caused him a trouble when he said the line on stage with the cough and sputum was cured by Uirou. It was quite a famous story and after he was cured, he made a play “The Uirou Vendor” and acted by himself around the time this picture was produced. A woman on a picture seems to imitate Danjurou.

Edo period En-no-Ozunu (En-no-Gyouja) was an ascetic and a mystic. He was a figure actually existed and originated the Shugendou, a syncretic religion during the Asuka and the Nara period. The images and characters of him were created in the later period by the followers who compiled his legend and there are many places including Mt. Fuji and Enoshima Island were being told as the holy places where En-no-Gyouja carried out the training. In this picture a couple demons Zenki, a husband and Goki, a wife are illustrated in the front. It is said that En-no-Gyoja possessed a very strong mystic power that he can even make the demon gods work for him.

Toyohara Kunichika and Utagawa Hiroshige III The production date: 1867 (Keiou 3) This work is from a series that illustrated the post stations with the portraits of kabuki actors that related to the post stations. “Hito-me Sen-ryou” indicates that the one glance values to a thousand ryou (Ryou is monetary unit of Edo period. A thousand ryou is worth today’s a hundred million yen.). The background was illustrated by Hiroshige III and the figure in front was illustrated by Kunichika. The figure illustrated is a character Benten Kozou Kikunosuke from the kabuki play “Aoto-Zoushi Hana no Nishiki-e(The Glorious Picture Book of Aoto’s Exploits)”, or more familiar title “Shiranami Gonin Otoko” (“Shiranami Five Thieves”) and he had a connection with Enoshima Island. The actor who played Benten Kozou was Ichimura Kakitsu IV (He later changed his name to Onoe Kikugorou V).

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4) Shinagawa, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou In this picture, a view of a famous cherry-blossom viewing place Goten-yama is illustrated. It is told that the cherry trees were planted from Kanbun era (1661-73) at Goten-yama and by the late Edo period, there were 600 cherry-blossom trees. Scenes such as the people enjoying party under cherry-blossom in full bloom and a young waitress from teahouse accosting the customers are illustrated. The lively atmosphere of cherry-blossom viewing season is illustrated. 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 Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4) Kanagawa and Hodogaya, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou The third and fourth post stations of the Toukaidou Highway, Kanagawa (Irregular kanji characters were used for Kanagawa) and Hodogaya are illustrated but separated by the mist illustrated between the stations. On the right below at the Kanagawa station, there is a notation of Asamasha indicates the Asama Shrine, and this place was flourished as a rest spot between the post stations. The right next to the notation, “Hito-Ana”(cave) is illustrated. Today’s research proves that the horizontal cave was an ancient tomb of a power holder but during the Edo period, it was connected with the Fuji-Shinkou (Worship of Mt. Fuji) and people believed that this cave is connected to Mt. Fuji through the underground tunnel. 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 Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4) Eight Views of Kanazawa, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou In this picture, today’s Kanazawa Ward of Yokohama City’s eight famous landscapes, Kanazawa Hakkei are all illustrated. The eight views of Kanazawa are “Night Rain at Koizumi”, “Evening Bell at Shoumyou”, “Returning Sails at Ottomo”, “Hazy Morning Sunlight at Susaki”, “Autumn Moon at Seto”, “Wild Geese Alighting at Hiragata”, “Sunset at Nojima”, and “Evening Snow at Uchikawa”. At the right blow the sign of “Myoujin” that indicates the Seto Mishima Myoujin (Seto Shrine) is indicated. 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 Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4) Enoshima Island, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou This picture illustrates Enoshima Island at the time of low tide and the pilgrims heading to the Island are walking on a sand bar. This sand bar was used to be called as “subana”, and the name still remains today. People call the street that leads to this approach Subana-Douri (Subana Street). Today there is a bridge to cross the sea to get to the Enoshima Island on the time of high tide, but during Edo period, when there was no bridge; people crossed the sea by the ships. 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 Production date: 1851 (Kaei 4) Shichiri-ga-hama Beach, from the series Famous Places of the Toukaidou The view from the Shichiri-ga-hama Beach was often used as the most beloved landscape motif since the two of the most famous places, the Enoshima Island and the Mt. Fuji can be seen from this beach. A town on the right, situated about the gate of the Enoshima Island was Katase. This town was flourished with many visitors to the island and many inns and souvenir shops stood along the approach. A hilly island situated on the left of Katase is the Cape Koyurugi. 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.