Hodogaya - Reisho TokaidoDate - SOLD

Hodogaya - Reisho Tokaidodate is a beautiful color woodblock print on paper, the plate n. 5, from the series “ Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi) ,” also known as the Reisho TokaidoDate , designed by the ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige  (?? ??, 1797-1858).

Original Title: Hodogaya: Katabira River and Katabira Brige (Hodogaya, Katabiragawa Katabirabashi)

Printed in 1833 and after between 1847 and 1852, the ending color plate includes more colors than this one, that could be considered likely a print proof. Comparing our spaciment to that preserved at the Art Institiute of Chicago . 

In very good condition, except for aging signs like discoloration, little abrasions of the paper on the edge, this original print, glued on cardboard, depicts a snowy Japanese landscape with the typical mastery of Hiroshige.

Provenance: Wuerttemberg private collection, assembled between the 1950s and 2000

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (???????, Tokaido Gojusan-tsugi), is a series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tokaido in 1832.

The Tokaido road, linking the shogun's capital, Edo, to the imperial one, Kyoto, was the main travel and transport artery of old Japan. This was also the most important of the "Five Roads" (Gokaido)—the five major roads of Japan created or developed during the Edo period to further strengthen the control of the central shogunate administration over the whole country.

  The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido was such a popular subject that led Hiroshige to create some 30 series of woodcut prints on it, all very different one from the other by their size (oban or chuban), their designs or even their number (some series include just a few prints).

The Hoeido edition of the Tokaido is Hiroshige's best known work, and the best sold ever ukiyo-e Japanese prints. Created after Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, this print series established this new major theme of ukiyo-e, the landscape print, or fukei-ga, with a special focus on "famous views" (meisho). Hiroshige's series met a full success, not only in Japan, but later in Western countries.