Toukaidou Gojuusantsugi　東海道五十三次

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Lit. Eastern Sea [coast] Road, fifty-three stations of the Toukaidou 東海道, which is the the road and rest places that linked Kyoto and Edo from the Edo period onward. The 53 stations plus two end points are: Nihonbashi 日本橋 (in Edo); Shinagawa 品川; Kawasaki 川崎; Kanagawa 神奈川; Hodogaya 保土ヶ谷; Totsuka 戸塚; Fujisawa 藤沢; Hiratsuka 平塚; Ooiso 大磯; Odawara 小田原; Hakone 箱根; Mishima 三島; Numadu 沼津; Hara 原; Yoshiwara 吉原; Kanbara 蒲原; Yui 由比; Okitsu 興津; Ejiri 江尻; Fuchuu 府中; Mariko 丸子; Okabe 岡部; Fujieda 藤枝; Shimada 島田; Kanaya 金谷; Nissaka 日坂; Kakegawa 掛川; Fukuroi 袋井; Mitsuke 見付; Hamamatsu 浜松; Maisaka 舞坂; Arai 新居; Shirasuka 白須賀; Futagawa 二川; Yoshida 吉田, Goyu 御油; Akasaka 赤坂; Fujikawa 藤川; Okazaki 岡崎; Chiriu 地鯉鮒, Narumi 鳴海; Miya 宮; Kuwana 桑名; Yokkaichi 四日市; Ishiyakushi 石薬師; Shouno 庄野; Kameyama 亀山; Seki 関; Sakanoshita 坂ﾉ下; Tsuchiyama 土山; Minakuchi 水口; Ishibe 石部; Kusatsu 草津; Ootsu 大津; and Sanjou-oohashi 三条大橋 (in Kyoto). Stretching for 514 kilometres (319 miles), the highway had existed since ancient times, but after the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu 徳川幕府 government in Edo the Toukaidou became the main artery for the flow of government, finance, and culture between Edo and western Japan. Processions of daimyou 大名 to and from Edo were a major event in the post-towns shukueki 宿駅 along the road, most of which were equipped with stables, shops selling amenities for travelers, and inns of all sorts. Life along the Toukaido was described by the writer Jippensha Ikku 十返舎一九 (1765-1831) in *HIizakurige 膝栗毛, but it was the artist Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (also known as Andou 安藤 Hiroshige, 1797-1858) who immortalized the road in his many series of *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints depicting each of the stations, natural scenery, and life on the road (ca 1833).

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