Hiroshige 53 Stations of Tokaido (Masterworks of Ukiyo-E,)

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The Tokaido -- the name of this highway today epitomizes a golden age of Japan's past. This "Eastern Sea Road", which connected the emperor's capital in Kyoto and the seat of the shogun's administration in Edo (now Tokyo) was heavily traveled in all seasons; the numerous prints and guidebooks about the Tokaido represent the time of prosperity and peace when even the average citizen could undertake the adventure of travel along this highway. It was Hiroshige who immortalized the Tokaido. In the famous prints of the fifty-three stages reproduced in this book, this master artist of the ukiyo-e print captured the beauty, romance, adventure, mystery, and joy - all the myriad and glowing facets of the people and places, in all seasons and times of day, of the Tokaido highway. Hiroshige's Tokaido prints became an immediate success in his own time; today they are included among the art masterpieces of the world. The success of Hiroshige's first Tokaido series was so great that he followed with other versions of the same theme. This is the first book to present selected masterpieces from three other Tokaido series by Hiroshige, alongside the original fifty-five prints published by Hoeido, all in full color. In all his work one sees the same vibrant poetry, the love of the countryside and the people, the concern with the beauty of seasonal change and the forces of nature in sun, rain, mist and snow. The modern reader here is presented with an immortal, pictorial travel guide through a world of beauty and color that captures the essence of a land and its people.