This edition of The Sixty-nine Seasons of the Kisokaidor is a stunning account of the historical route between Edo and Kyoto by Keisai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige, accompanied by the original sketches, this vivid portrait of 19th-century Japan is a magnificent testimony to its imperial past and a masterpiece of engraving.

From Station to Station

A historical journey through the heart of Japan by two legendary masters of printmaking.

The creation of the Kisokaido route was the order of the then sogun of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who in the early 17th century decreed the construction of rest stations along the long stretch from Edo (present-day Tokyo) to Kyoto, opening inns, shops and restaurants to provide food and lodging for exhausted travellers. In 1835, the famous woodcutter Keisai Eisen was commissioned to produce a series of prints depicting the Kisokaido route. After taking over 24 of these prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 images in 1838.
Both Eisen and Hiroshige were acknowledged masters of engraving. The sixty-nine stations of the Kisokaido show their different styles and their common skill. From the busy starting point of Nihonbashi to Iwamurata Castle, Eisen opts for a more muted palette, but excels in figuration, especially in depicting glamorous women, and revels in the images of all the activity along the way, from shoeing a horse to peasants throwing rice.Hiroshigedemonstrated his mastery of landscape printmaking with grand and evocative scenes, from the tranquil banks of the Ota River to the imposing Wada Pass or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki.
Taken together, the prints in The Sixty-Nine Seasons of the Kisokaidos are not only a lively example of the art of woodcut, with bold compositions and an experimental use of colour, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the spectre of industrialisation appeared. This new edition of TASCHEN presents the series with the excellence it deserves. The images reproduced are from the only known first edition of the complete series, ensuring the highest quality for this legendary work.

About the author

Rhiannon Paget studied at Tokyo University of the Arts and received her PhD in Japanese Art History from the University of Sydney, Australia. Curator of Asian art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida, she has published research on Japanese woodblock prints, textiles, board games andnihonga.

About the editor and author

Andreas Marksstudied East Asian art history at the University of Bonn and obtained his PhD in Japanese studies at the University of Leiden with a thesis on 19th-century actor prints. From 2008 to 2013 he was director and chief curator of the Clark Center for Japanese Art in Hanford, California, and since 2013 he has been curator of the Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese and Korean Art and director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Publisher: Taschen