No. 37 "Akasaka: Inn with Serving Maids" from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido
Fine Arts The Japanese Prints: Ancient and ModernItem Info
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:
"In the early 1830's, Hiroshige's first landscape prints appeared. He subsequently became the leading landscape artist and was especially known for his series on the Tokaido highway that connected Edo (present day Tokyo) with Kyoto. The earliest and most famous of these, generally known by the name of the publisher as 'Hoeido ban Tokaido' (Tokaido published by Hoeido), was issued from 1832-33. Hiroshige III stated sixty years later that Hiroshige's designs are after sketches he took during a journey to Kyoto, however, most of his designs are undoubtedly inspired from illustrations in guide books like the Tokaido meisho zue ('Gathering of Views of Famouse Sightss alonf the Tokaido;' 1797) and even this alleged journey cannot be verified."
from "Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks 1680-1900", Andreas Marks. Tuttle Publishing. p.132
Notes:
note card with print
Station 37
Akasaka: Scene at an Inn. Akasaka was well known for its girls. Here Hiroshige, depicting a typical evening at an inn, shows us three of them (at right) making up their faces, while one traveler (left) returns from bath and a second relaxes with a pipe as a maidservant kneels in the doorway, about to serve supper, and a blind masseur waits to be called.
Bibliography:
https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/125651
https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/370941
https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/703108
https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/2030739
https://www.hiroshige.org.uk/Tokaido_Series/Tokaido_Great.htm
Creation Year: ca. 1833
Image Dimensions Width: 23 cm
Call Number: Woodblock Prints - The Fifty-three Stations of the T?kaid? Road
Creator Name: Hiroshige, Utagawa, 1797-1858 - Artist