“The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō”: The Art of the Highway

Memorial Portrait of Ichiryūsai Hiroshige [Utagawa Hiroshige] (1797–1858) by Utagawa Toyokuni III. Hiroshige’s death poem is written, expressing a wish that even if he dies and goes to the Western Paradise, he wants to travel around and see the famous places there. (© Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939; courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art digital archive)

A chest depicting the Tōkaidō winding around four sides from Edo to Kyoto. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art)

Utagawa Hiroshige’s Hakone print from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art; appears in June–September exhibition)

Pair of hanging scrolls by Utagawa Hiroshige. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art)

The Hara print from Utagawa Hiroshige’s The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art; appears in September–December exhibition)

Tōkaidō Gourmet Map

Utagawa Hiroshige’s Kusatsu print from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art; appears in June–September exhibition)

Ubaga mochi (at left; courtesy Ubaga Mochiya) and hashirii mochi (at right; courtesy Hashirii Mochi Rōho)

At left, the Mariko print from Utagawa Hiroshige’s The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Courtesy New York Public Library); at right, Chōjiya in Mariko, founded in 1596, which appears in Hiroshige’s print and is still active today. (© Pixta)

Utagawa Hiroshige’s Narumi print from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art; appears in June–September exhibition)

The museum also has a 1926 painting of Mount Fuji by the nihonga master Yokoyama Taikan, which is almost one meter tall and nine meters wide. (Courtesy Okada Museum of Art)