Hiroshige & Eisen. The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaido

Hiroshige & Eisen. The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaido (Multilingual Edition)

Station to Station
A historic trail through the heart of Japan, by two legendary woodblock artists

The KisokaidÅ route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the countryâ€™s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous 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 artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works to chart the KisokaidÅ journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838.

Both Eisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. In The Sixty-Nine Stations along the KisokaidÅ, we find the artistsâ€™ 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 of glamorous women, and relishes snapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape with grandiose and evocative scenes, whether itâ€™s the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki.

Taken as a whole, The Sixty-Nine Stations collection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, including bold compositions and an experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This new TASCHEN XXL edition revives the series with due scale and splendor. Sourced from the only-known set of a near-complete run of the first edition of the series, this legendary publication is reproduced in optimum quality, bound in the Japanese tradition and with uncut paper. A perfect companion piece to TASCHENâ€™s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, it is at once a visual delight and a major artifact from the bygone era of Imperial Japan.

Text in English, French, and German
Country USA
Brand Taschen
Manufacturer TASCHEN
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 47332505
UnitCount 1
EANs 9783836539388
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Taschen
Manufacturer	TASCHEN
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	47332505
UnitCount	1
EANs	9783836539388
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Hiroshige & Eisen. The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaido (Multilingual Edition)

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