Hiroshige 53 Stations of the Tokaido Vertical

<p>The official title for this work is Pictures from the Famous Places of the Fifty-three Stations.</p><p>Hiroshige produced these prints in 1855 more than 20 years after his first horizontal Hoeidō edition published 1833-34 which is included as thumbnails for comparison.</p><p>It is instructive to see Hiroshige's use of his now mature experience as he develops the vertical format for the narrative. He does designs as he would do a photograph. He set the standard for landscape photography without a camera.</p><p>The Tōkaidō series was the most popular print series ever made in Japan. Hiroshige returned to this theme again and again with delightful results.</p><p>It is possible to travel the same road today and some villages are still looking quite like they did back then. The postal stations were constructed between 1601 and 1624.</p>