Kanaya, from “Famous Views of the Fifty-three Stations" (Gojūsan tsugi meisho zue)

Description

Hiroshige is most famous for his Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan-tsugi), first produced in ca. 1833–1834. Hiroshige in fact produced no less than twelve major series on the theme of the Tōkaidō, the road running from Edo to Kyoto, with varied emphases and on different sizes of paper. Published by the house Tsuta-ya, this later series is distinct in its vertical (tate), as opposed to horizontal (yoko), format, such that it is nicknamed the “Vertical Tōkaidō.” Among other versions in the vertical format, one series is known as the “Figures Tōkaidō,” so-called for its compositional emphasis on the activities of the depicted figures over that of the landscape, and another series is known by its proper title, the Double-brush Fifty-three Stations.

In “Kanaya,” the twenty-fifth print in the series, a view of Mt. Fuji and the Ōi River stretch into the distance, dotted with a stream of travelers from the Shimada station who make their way across the water and the sandbars to the shore.