16/07/2026
When Commodore Perry's warships stormed into Yokohama Bay to "open up" Japan to Western goods and ways, that island nation had been enjoying for several decades a flourishing of the graphic arts so remarkable that only the Italian Renaissance could rival it for the scope and quality of its productions. It too had its roots in a tradition, not in a religious or classical one, but in the ukiyo-e, the "floating world" of the common and quotidian. It too had its special medium, not stationary surfaces magnificently adorned with oil or tempera, but colored woodblock prints, "moveable feasts" that found their way into the abodes of the highest and most humble alike. And they too had their "great masters," their transcendent artists, their Michelangelo and Raphael in Hiroshige and Hokusai. Perry's mission may have been to force the Japanese to open their markets to Western goods and their minds to Western culture, but it proved to be a two-way street. In less than two decades "japonisme" would captivate the French -- always the first to recognize a good thing -- and change Western art forever through the Impressionists.
This gallery is devoted to those two great artists and their greatest series of works. Here you'll find Katsushika Hokusai's celebrated set of 46 Mt. Fuji prints, as well as one of the Fuji sets done by his younger (and perhaps greater) rival, Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige. They are followed by Hiroshige's best work, the 1834 "Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido," and conclude with another of his Tokaido sets, the so-called "Small" Tokaido.
Along with his contemporary Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was the recognized master of the woodblock print, the most popular art form in Japan during the late Edo period. This series of prints -- with Mt. Fuji viewed from different locations -- is his most widely reproduced work, and the cornerstone of his international reputation. I have tried to identify the locale and history of each print in my comments.
Utagawa (aka Ando) Hiroshige (1797-1858) was Hokusai's successor in the tradition of the ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") woodblock print, and enjoyed an even greater popularity than his predecessor. In his works the art of imperial Japan reaches its apex only a few short years before Commodore Perry's black ships would sail into Yokohama harbor and change Japan forever.
During the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) the Tokaido ("Eastern Sea Route") was a well-maintained road along the Pacific coast of Japan from the sh**unate's capital in Edo (modern Tokyo) to the ancient capital of Kyoto in the south. It was not only the most highly traveled route in Japan, but its most renowned, the subject of many popular guidebooks and series of color prints. Hiroshige made his first trip down the highway in 1831 as part of the delegation that bore an annual gift of horses from the sh**un in Edo to the emperor in Kyoto (see Print 39). Shortly thereafter the first of his Tokaido prints began appearing, with the complete set coming out in 1834. They were an instant success and boosted Hiroshige to the forefront of Japanese artists.
There are fifty-five prints in this series -- one for each "stage," or station, along the road, and one each for the terminal points at the Noshimbashi Bridge in Edo and at Kyoto. I have prefaced the series with a map showing the position of each stage along the route, and added as a postscript in homage to the artist a posthumous portrait done by a disciple.
Thanks to the work of the Japanese scholar Ichitaro Kondo, I've also been emboldened to assume the role of "travel guide" in my comments to each picture, providing a sort of running (and hopefully entertaining) commentary on each stage of the journey. So enjoy your trip down this fabled highway of a long-lost world, so brilliantly preserved for us by the artistry of Hiroshige-san.
This gallery is a completely revised and greatly expanded merging of two previous MWW exhibits.
For more Non-Western art, see these MWW exhibits or Special Collections:
* Hiroshige's Edo - Vistas into the Lost World of Tokugawa Japan
* Hiroshige's Japan - More Vistas into a Lost World
* Museum Without Walls Non-Western Painting
* Museum Without Walls Non-Western Sculpture & Architecture
* The Art of Imperial China (900-1800 AD)
