Chiryu—No. 40, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido
- Date:
- c. 1847/52
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Chiryu, the thirty-ninth post station on the Tokaido, sat in the flat farmland of Mikawa Province and was best known to Edo travelers for its horse market and the broad fields where colts and mares grazed before being sold. In this 1842 landscape print from Utagawa Hiroshige's Reisho Tokaido, the artist returns to Chiryu with a renewed compositional approach, situating the station in an open landscape whose horizontal sweep emphasizes the rural character that distinguished it from the steeper coastal scenes earlier in the series. The set takes its nickname from the clerical-script (reisho) calligraphy in its title cartouches and was published by Maruseiya Jinpachi as part of the steady demand among Edo readers for Tokaido imagery during the 1840s. As an Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) landscape print, the sheet relies on Hiroshige's mature technique: a low horizon, restrained color, and small figures placed to give a sense of scale rather than narrative incident. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves these qualities, including the gentle gradations of sky and field that the Reisho series carries through its fifty-five sheets. While later editions and printings of Tokaido series vary in coloring and trim, the Reisho remains valued for its calm, classicizing tone and for the way Hiroshige uses Chiryu's open meadows to slow the visual pace of the journey between Okazaki and Narumi.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Chiryu—No. 40, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido was created by Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重) in c. 1847/52.
Chiryu—No. 40, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Reisho Tokaido depicts landscapes.
