Posted by Nan Hannon on July 02, 2001 at 16:08:12:
In Reply to: Ruts in the Tokaido Road posted by Nan Hannon on July 02, 2001 at 15:35:55:
Hi, Mike -
After the 1833 publication of Hiroshige's first series of "Fifty-Three Stations on the Tokaido Road" - known as the Hoeido Tokaido after the name of the publisher, he produced another 15 to 18 series depicting the same stations from different perspectives. Might seem as if Hiroshige wore ruts in the Tokaido Road, but since he produced over 8,000 different prints during his career, it's not surprising that he continued revisiting the theme that brought him instant acclaim.
A source in which you might find out to which series your mother-in-law's print belongs is Edward Strange's "Colour Prints of Hiroshige." You should be able to find this in a good library. Perhaps an even better resource is the 1990 "Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." This has small black-and-white illustrations of ten of the Tokadio series, so the odds are with you.
You and your family might enjoy visiting a virtual museum maintained by the Ginza branch of the Tokai Bank of Tokyo, displaying their Hiroshige collection. They have the Hoeido, Gyusho, Reisho and Tate-e versions of the series. They are at csweb.co.jp/TBK/hiroshige/art-hiro_e.htm.
Your print is not from any of these four series, but you might enjoy clicking on that station to compare your "snapshot" with other views that Hiroshige produced of Fujisawa. Except for the Reisho version, your Fujisawa shows a more warm and intimate view of the street life than the others. But the other depictions of Fujisawa help orient you to Fujisawa's relationship to Mt. Fuji and the 14th century Yugyoji Temple, as the travellers approach Fujisawa. The thatched hipped-roof structures seen up close in your Fujisawa are visible from a distance in the Hoeido, Gyusho and Take-e series.
One of the fun aspects of lining up a few versions of the Tokaido Road series is looking for similarities and differences in the views depicted. Sometimes you can easily pick out individuals shown going about their business from different perspectives, as if Hiroshige took a series of "snapshots" as travelers approached, interacted and receded from view. He's also extremely consistent with his trees - you can see scars from lost limbs on Japanese red pines from different angles!
Good luck with your research, Mike!
Best,
Nan