Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"A favorite theme for Hiroshige, the Tokaido road stretched for more than 300 miles between the two major capitals of Edo (current day Tokyo) and Kyoto, the home of the Emperor. Once a year, the princes of outlying provinces were required to travel to the Edo palace of the Shogun to pay homage; of the five major routes, the Tokaido Road was the greatest. The fifty-three stations, or stopping places, were established along the Tokaido road as posts where travelers could find food and lodging. Typically, horses were only used by messengers but it was also possible for the weary pilgrim to rent horses or palanquins - litters or chairs borne by human bearers. Here, a group of travelers stand near a signpost at the entrance to a palisaded wall with their horses.
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Ukiyo-e (Pictures of a Floating World)
For over two hundred years, 1640 to 1853, the ports of Japan were virtually closed to the outside world. During this period of isolation a unique and technically unrivaled art emerged--the Ukiyo-e woodblock print. Ukiyo-e, “pictures of a floating world,” evolved to meet the demands of a rising merchant class for an an that reflected its own interests and amusements. The subjects depicted were Kabuki theater, famous courtesans, genre scenes and famous sights.
These prints reached their summit in the latter part of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. The process of production demanded a team effort between the artist-designer, the woodblock cutter, the printer and the publisher. Hiroshige, Utamaro, Eizan, and Buncho are but a few of the great Japanese artists who were engaged in this popular and highly lucrative art.
Distributed in mass quantities as souvenirs, handbills, and posters, the prints became increasingly popular among the Japanese throughout the 19th century. This popularity spread to the Western world following the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Ukiyo-e influence, both direct and indirect, upon Western art can be seen in the works of many European and American artists including James Whistler, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt, and other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists."