"Hiroshige's “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo,” actually composed of 118 splendid woodblock landscape and genre scenes of mid-nineteenth-century Tokyo, is one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art. In order to protect these very special prints, the Museum can only physically display them periodically, but they are presented here in this ongoing online exhibition. The series, reproduced online in its entirety, contains many of Hiroshige's best loved and most extraordinary prints. It is a celebration of the style and world of Japan's finest cultural flowering at the end of the shogunate."
"Sections:
I. Spring
II. Summer
III. Autumn
IV. Winter
V. Further Information
VI. Hiroshige and His World
VII. Hiroshige's Impact on the West
VIII. Hiroshige in Brooklyn
IX. Famous Places of Edo
X. How to Read a Japanese Woodblock Print
XI. Printing Techniques
XII. Conservation"
"Spring"
"The series opens with spring. Scenes 1 though 42 represent the First to the Third Months, which are considered in Japan to be the spring season. Typically, early spring is marked by the festivities celebrated at the New Year, which begins the season. Blossoming plum trees are associated with the middle of spring, signifying the end of the cold season and the beginning of warm weather.
The most popular activity of the season is flower viewing. The word “flower” (hana) is equated with the cherry blossom, emblematic of this season in Japan:
Cherry flowers,
the image of
our fleeting world—
no sooner have they opened than they begin to fall
-Anonymous poem from the Kokinshū (10th century), translated in Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson, eds., From the “Country of Eight Islands” (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1981), p. 117.
This poem reflects the traditional Buddhist concept of ukiyo, or “floating world”—one's transitory existence, or the impermanence of nature. In the Edo period, ukiyo came to mean the superficial pursuit of pleasure and the concern for living for the moment, best defined by the leisure activities of Edo's urban culture.
Once an activity reserved for the elite in Japan, cherry-blossom viewing became a popular activity with a wider audience. As the prints show, many classes of people visited sites known for the spectacle of blossoming cherry trees. There was also a commercial aspect to flower viewing, represented in the restaurants and seasonal open-air cafés that capitalized on the most spectacular views."
Anonymous poem from the Kokinshū (10th century), translated in Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson, eds., From the Country of Eight Islands (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1981), p. 117.
"Summer"
"Summer amusements of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Months are
represented in numbers 43 through 72. Evening outings in pleasure boats
on the Sumida River were taken along the many famous bridges of Edo,
where endless varieties of entertainment were offered.
Urban festivals (matsuri) were most numerous in summer. They
included Kambutsue (the anniversary of Buddha's birthday on April 8th);
Boys Festival (May 5th), when huge red and black paper carp were flown
on poles, since carp were considered to symbolize manliness; and the
Grand Sann Festival (on the 15th day of the Sixth Month), when a
colorful procession made its way to Edo castle.
A formal occasion known as “opening the garden,” in the beginning of
the Month, was an opportunity to marvel at great showings of irises and
wisteria. These flowers were quintessential symbols of summer, as were
the swallow and certain prized gourmet treats. The first of the bonito
fish (a type of tuna) and the tiny yellow makuwa melon would be in
demand by the populace of Edo and at their freshest during this season.
This group of prints ends in the rainy season, considered an
uncertain time, when rain was welcomed for agriculture, but also when
crops might be destroyed by pests or drought and cities threatened by
epidemics. Yūdachi, an evening descent of the thunder god,
exemplifies the typical summer shower in Hiroshige's prints: the heavens
suddenly darken late in the day and release torrents of rain in large
drops, after which the sky quickly clears.
Rains of the Fifth Month—
they're happy to have a moat
round the encampment!
-Poem by Yosa Buson (1716–1783), translated in Steven D. Carter, “Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology” (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 395, no. 974."
Poem by Yosa Buson (1716–1783), translated in Steven D. Carter, Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 395, no. 974.
"Autumn"
"The people of Edo marked the autumn season with excursions to scenic attractions and harvest festivals, and viewing fall foliage at its peak. The prints numbered 73 through 98 suggest the activities of this season in Japan, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Months.
The paper decorations of the Tanabata, or Star Festival, celebrated in the Seventh Month, indicate the end of summer. Strips of colored paper are hung on bamboo branches, tokens of the child's wished-for skill in penmanship. This is in fact the hottest time of year (autumn began in the Eighth Month). In the prints, the people strolling on bridges or out on riverboats at night wear yukata, the cotton summer kimono, and enjoy fireworks in the sky and their reflection on the river.
Since ancient times, maple-leaf viewing had been celebrated in verse, as in this poem, which refers to the red maples reflected in a famous river in Kyoto:
Not even in the age
of the mighty gods of old
was such a thing known:
Tatsuta's waters tie-dyed
with leaf-bands of Chinese red.
-Poem by Ariwara no Narihira (825–880), translated in Steven D. Carter, “Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology” (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 210, no. 431.
In the Edo period, excursions to the best sites for viewing maple leaves at their peak were as popular as the flower-viewing festival of spring. Maples in late autumn present a beautiful sight when reflected in a pond, evoking the poet's image of rinsing brocade in water. In some of Hiroshige's autumn prints, the originally glorious orange color of the maples has blackened with age, spoiling the intended effect (the pigment used was probably either red lead or iron oxide, which can darken over time with exposure to air).
Numbers 82 and 90 feature another notable literary motif, the harvest moon, rising serenely through an autumn sky that is punctuated by a flock of geese or dimmed by a wisp of cloud. Rays of moonlight bathe the street below with silver light, creating an array of shadows."
Poem by Ariwara no Narihira (825–880), translated in Steven D. Carter, Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 210, no. 431.