Special Spring Exhibition Hiroshige and the Tokaido Highway – Featuring the Gyosho and Reisho Tokaido Highway Editions
Exhibit Period
First Half: Saturday, April 21, 2012 - Sunday, May 20, 2012
Second Half: Saturday, May 26, 2012 - Sunday, June 24, 2012
Exhibit Times
9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
(last admissions at 4:30 p.m.)
Organized by
The Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum of Art
Museum closed
During the Exhibit Change (May 21-May 25), and Mondays (open April 30)
Admission Fee
Adults: 700 (630) yen High School, College Students: 400 (360) yen * Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors. * Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger. * Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.
Overview
Utagawa Hiroshige’s breakthrough work, From the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Highway (generally called the Hoeido Edition Tokaido), began in approximately 1833 as a joint work of Takeuchi Magohachi’s Hoeido and Tsuruya Kiuemon’s Tsuruki publishing houses. The work sold well from the day it was first published, and continued to sell well. As well as being a breakthrough work, the Hoeido Edition Tokaido is Hiroshige’s magnum opus, but in the years that followed Hiroshige produced more than twenty different editions of the Tokaido Highway series.
This exhibit features the Gyosho Tokaido and Kyoka-iri Tokaido, first published approximately eight years after the Hoeido Edition Tokaido. The Reisho Tokaido was published seven years later. A further three years later, the Jinbutsu Tokaido became the center of further expansion in the series. The Gyosho Tokaido is properly known as From the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Highway. The content puts the focus on the depiction of the travelers and the rest stations. The Kyoka-iri Tokaido is properly known as Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Highway. A birds-eye view is utilized in many of the compositions, so the human figures in the scenes are depicted small. The proper title of the Reisho Tokaido is Fifty-three Stations, Tokaido Highway. The design features a realistic compositional representation of the scenery along the highway and colorful expression. The Jinbutsu Tokaido is properly known as The Fifty-three Stations. The compositions feature close-ups of people on the highway. Each work was produced in a different year, but all are known as representative works of Hiroshige. May your eyes be satiated with the scenery along the highway 180 years ago, and your heart share in the emotions of its travelers.
Museum Talk
Saturday, April 21, 2012 and Saturday, May 26, 2012
Talk starts at 1:30 p.m.
Presented by one of our museum curators
Presented by a Hiroshige Museum Curator
Lecture
Commemorative Lecture
Saturday, June 2, 2012 from 1:30 p.m.
Presented by the director of our museum, Shinya Ichikawa