Hiroshige 53 Stations of the Tokaido Vertical

The official title for this work is "Pictures from the Famous Places of the Fifty-three Stations".

Hiroshige produced these prints in 1855 more than 20 years after his first horizontal Hoeido edition published 1833-34, which is included as thumbnails for comparison.

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.

The Tokaido series was the most popular print series ever made in Japan. Hiroshige returned to this theme again and again, with delightful results.

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.