Travel Scenes Prints (502)
Travel scenes document journeys along Japan's historic roads, sea routes, and pilgrimage paths, forming one of the woodblock print tradition's most commercially successful and artistically significant genres. The meisho-e (famous places) format, which presented sequential views of notable sites along a route, generated some of ukiyo-e's greatest masterworks and established templates that artists followed for generations. Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido" (1833-34), depicting the post stations along the great road connecting Edo and Kyoto, became the bestselling print series of the Edo period and defined the travel-scene genre. Its success spawned dozens of road series by Hiroshige himself and his contemporaries, documenting the Kisokaido, Nikko road, and other major routes. These prints served dual purposes — as art objects and as practical references for travelers, capturing the character of inns, teahouses, and scenic viewpoints along each route. The travel-scene tradition continued into the modern era as artists documented Japan's expanding railway network and new tourist destinations. Shin-hanga publishers like Watanabe Shozaburo commissioned series of famous views specifically targeting the tourist market, both domestic and international, creating prints that continue to define visual expectations of Japan's most celebrated landscapes.
Artists Known for Travel Scenes
Havana in 1954
Woodblock print
#84 Kagurazaka
Woodblock print
No 36, Goyu Honno-ga-hara / Gojusan-tsugi Meisho Zue
Woodblock print
utagawa-hiroshige-ii
Woodblock print
No 38 Fujikawa yama-naka no sato / Gojusan-tsugi Meisho Zue
Woodblock print
The Way to Oshino
1981–86
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Shirasuka
Woodblock print
Acropolis original pencil sketch (on site)
Woodblock print
True Pictures of Famous Places in Tokyo: The Railroad at Takanawa
Woodblock print
Supper Wagon
Woodblock print
Victorian Invention, The Locomotive (23/30)
Woodblock print
Goyu: Scarlet Latticework
Woodblock print
Matchiyama / Tokyo meisho zue (Famous Places in Tokyo)
1893 (1 September;printing; 5 September;published)
Woodblock print
![Title unknown [Michiyuki] by Takehisa Yumeji](https://1.api.artsmia.org/800/132723.jpg)
Title unknown [Michiyuki]
1910s–1930s
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Acropolis original conte drawing
Woodblock print
Travels with the Master: Lugano (Meishou To No Tabi: Lugano machi)
Woodblock print
Towers of Cologne (Kerun no to)
1962
Color woodblock print; edition 6/20
Dome in Vienna (Uin no domu)
1961
Color woodblock print; edition 7/20
Retour de la Jungle, Tondao: Celebes
1948
Woodblock print
Chapter 14 - Miotsukushi
Woodblock print
Trader showing mirror at Nagasaki
Woodblock print
For Japan
1958
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
HAYASHINOMICHI B (path to the forest B)
Woodblock print
Stone Lanterns
Woodblock print
The Tale Of Genji Usu Gumo A Wreath Of Cloud
Woodblock print
Ancient Court Wagon for Ladies
Woodblock print
The Resting Place, Scutari
1924
Explorers
Woodblock print
European Behavior
1955
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Map in One's Mind
1953
Woodblock print, ink and color on faux hide
(Bunmei Kaika Orai)
Woodblock print
Dutch Merchants
Woodblock print
Suma
Woodblock print
Wakura Watatsuki
Woodblock print
Noboribetsu
Woodblock print
Miotsukushi — 澪標
Woodblock print
Chapter 29- The Imperial Visit - 行幸
Woodblock print
At Victoria B.C., Canada
Woodblock print
Portugese arriving in Nagasaki
Woodblock print
A Path through the Forest B
Woodblock print
MORINOMICHI C (Path to the Forest C)
Woodblock print
Dutch Man
Woodblock print
Yui Satsuta Touge
Woodblock print
Hara: A Line at the Foot of Mt. Fuji, Munakata's Tokaido Road
Woodblock print
Kanaya (Munakata's Prints of the Tokaido Highway No. 25)
Woodblock print
Journey
Woodblock print
The Long Bridge of Toyokawa at Yoshida Station
Woodblock print
The Acropolis Ruins, Morning
Woodblock print
Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia
Woodblock print
Portuguese arriving in Nagasaki
Woodblock print
The Road
1995
Watercolor, pencil, collage
Rainy Long Journey
2015
Archival Pigment Print
Shinbashi Station
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
A Road
2020
Woodblock
Kings Road AB ( diptych)
2013
Woodblock with gold and silver leaf
53 Stations of the Tokaido
Woodblock print
Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido: no. 1, Nihonbashi, Expressway (Tokaido gojusan tsugi: Nihonbashi)
Woodblock print
Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido: no. 35, Yoshida, Willow and Private Estate (Tokaido gojusan tsugi: Yoshida)
Woodblock print
Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido: no. 46, Shono, White Rain (Tokaido gojusan tsugi: Shono)
Woodblock print
House on Canal Road
Woodblock print
Related Subjects
Frequently Asked Questions
Travel scenes document journeys along Japan's historic roads, sea routes, and pilgrimage paths, forming one of the woodblock print tradition's most commercially successful and artistically significant genres. The meisho-e (famous places) format, which presented sequential views of notable sites along a route, generated some of ukiyo-e's greatest masterworks and established templates that artists followed for generations.
Kawase Hasui, Jun'ichiro Sekino, and Utagawa Hiroshige are among the artists most associated with travel scenes in our collection. Browse the full list of artists who explored this subject above.
Hanga currently catalogues 502 prints tagged with travel scenes, spanning ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, and sōsaku-hanga traditions where applicable.