Tokaido gojusantugi no uchi [53 Stations of the Tokaido].

Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) was the most popular, prolific and commercially successful creator of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in Japan in the 19th century. Ukiyo-e flourished from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. The term translates as 'picture(s) of the floating world', referring to the pleasure-seeking aspects of the Edo period (1600-1867). The subjects of the woodblock prints and paintings included female beauties, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, scenes from history and folk tales, and erotica.

This beautiful album of chuban tate-e wood block prints (chuban - a print approximately 18 x 25 cm; tate - a print in portrait format) includes 55 prints in classic ukiyo-e style with a beautiful lady in front of a landscape, with most of the landscape designs taken from the Hoeido edition of Hiroshige's The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. The prints are published by either Sanoya Kihei or Moriya Jihei or both, with censor's seal kiwame, all signed (Oju Kochoro / Kochoro/ Oju / Gototei) Kunisada ga, one print (Fujieda) without publisher's mark(s) and censor's seal.

The 55 stations are: Nihonbashi; Shinagawa; Kawasaki; Kanagawa; Hodogaya; Totsuka; Fujisawa; Hiratsuka; Oiso; Odawara; Hakone; Mishima; Numazu; Hara; Yoshiwara; Kanbara; Yui; Okitsu; Ejiri; Fuchu; Mariko; Okabe; Fujieda; Shimada; Kanaya; Nissaka; Kakegawa; Fukuroi; Mitsuke; Hamamatsu; Maisaka; Arai; Shirasuga; Futagawa; Yoshida; Akasaka; Fujikawa; Okazaki; Chiryu; Narumi; Miya; Kuwana; Yokkaichi; Ishiyakushi; Shono; Kameyama; Seki Sakanoshita; Tsuchiyama; Minakuchi; Ishibe; Kusatsu; Otsu; Miyako Sanjo Ohashi; Kyoto.

Title page and 55 of 56 prints (lacking the station Goyu), each sheet in chuban tate-e format (25 x 18.5cm approx.) Contemporary boards, with fuchsia pink decorative endpapers.