The Kisokaid route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of thearduous passage between Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Inns, shops, and restaurants were established to provide sustenance and lodging to weary travelers. In 1835, renowned woodblock print artistKeisai Eisenwas commissioned to create a series of works to chart the Kisokaid journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced byUtagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838.BothEisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. InThe Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaid, we find the artists distinct styles as much as their shared expertise. From the busy starting post of Nihonbashi to the castle town of Iwamurata, Eisen opts for a more muted palette but excels in figuration, particularly ofglamorous women, and relishessnapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape withgrandiose and evocative scenes, whether it s thepeaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki.Taken as a whole,The Sixty-Nine Stationscollection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, includingbold compositionsand anexperimental use of color, but alsoacharming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN volume is sourced fromone of the finest surviving first editionsand revives the series in our compact anniversary edition.
