Minneapolis Institute of Art

No. 28, Nagakubo

Utagawa Hiroshige; Publisher: Iseya Rihei

Date

c. 1835–38

Medium

Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Soon after the publication of Hiroshige's enormously popular series, Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road, he was asked to design prints for a set originally begun by Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) of the Kiso Road. Like the To_kaido_ Road, the Kiso linked Edo, the base of shogun, with the historic capital of Kyoto, home of the emperor. However, the Kiso Road was a much more arduous route through the central mountains of Japan. Of the seventy prints comprising the series, Hiroshige designed forty-five prints, including this one of the twenty-eighth government station along the road, known as Nagakubo. Hiroshige seems to have become intrigued with the depiction of the landscape by moonlight with the production of this series, creating four compositions that show the full moon and the subtle effects of its pale light. Asia

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