Hiroshige Utagawa, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido Series "Sanjo Ohashi Bridge"

The long Tokaido road that continues from Nihonbashi, Edo ends at Sanjo Ohashi Bridge, which was the gateway to Kyoto. You can see the townscape of the ancient capital on the other side of the Kamo River and in the background are the 36 peaks of Higashiyama. The people passing on the bridge are not only travelers who have arrived in Kyoto, but also people heading to Edo and residence of Kyoto, all of which are depicted in detail.

The 53 Stations of the Tokaido Series

This series depicts post towns and scenery along the way of Tokaido, which was the main road connecting Edo and Kyoto at the time period. At the time of its release, Ikku Jukensha's humorous book “Tokaidochu Hizakurige” was a hot topic, which became a big hit resulting in popularizing the name of the famous ukiyo-e artist, Hiroshige Utagawa. Photographs were yet not introduced during the Edo period, landscape paintings of ukiyo-e served as travel guidebooks, stirring up people's desire to travel and being loved by many during the time period. This series, which was extremely popular and successful at the time, influenced not only Japanese art, but influenced Western art later on as well.

Ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige Utagawa

An Ukiyo-e artist who was active in the late Edo period. HIroshige gained popularity with his infamous works which depict post towns along the Tokaido route from Edo to Kyoto called “The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” and also went on to create many landscape paintings from all over Japan which we can enjoy today. Hiroshige leaves behind many works that are expressed with rain and wind with humorous appearances of everyday people in a richly poetic manner than just depicting sceneries of famous places.
The beauty of the indigo color is highly praised around the world, and it is also called "Hiroshige Blue."

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