On this book's Tokaido, the old highway between Tokyo and Kyoto, you've barely left Nihonbashi before a steam train comes into view. Kaisei Gojusan Eki, "The Fifty-three Stations, Revised," is a print series (soroimono) by Utagawa Hiroshige III, published in 1875 (Meiji 8). The artist is given as "Hiroshige gazu," "drawn by Hiroshige," and the publisher as "Yamasei." The Postal Museum Japan and others introduce it under the name Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki. Its 59 prints, from Nihonbashi to Kyoto, plus a table of contents make 60 sheets, bound in order.
Each title comes with the distance to the next post town, as in "16 cho to Shinbashi" (cho is an old unit of distance). Every page you turn moves the journey one stop along. Here are six of the 60, in the order they appear in the book.
Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki: Contents
The first sheet is the table of contents. The eaves of a shop are covered with name boards for the post towns: "Nihonbashi," "Shinagawa," "Otsu," "Saikyo" (Kyoto) and more. On the back of the rickshaw in the foreground are the words "Hiroshige gazu." A preview of the stops ahead, before you set off.
Make a wallpaper from this print (Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki: Contents)
Telegraph Office, Nihonbashi
The second is Nihonbashi, where the journey starts. The title is "Denshinkyoku," the Telegraph Office. A white Western-style building stands at the foot of the bridge, and telegraph wires stretch across the sky. The series is full of things that were new in Meiji Japan, such as telegraph offices and poles, Western umbrellas and Western clothes.
Make a wallpaper from this print (Telegraph Office, Nihonbashi)
Shiodome Railway Station, Shinbashi
The four prints from Shinbashi to Kanagawa show the railway that opened between Shinbashi and Yokohama in 1872 (Meiji 5). At Shinbashi, "Shiodome Railway Station," a train pulls into the station; at Shinagawa, "Below Yatsuyama," one passes under a bridge; at Kawasaki, "Rokugogawa Railway," one crosses a river; and at Kanagawa, "The Steam Train Waiting Room," one runs through a cut in the hillside.
So the journey opens with a railway only about three years old.
Make a wallpaper from this print (Shiodome Railway Station, Shinbashi)
Suruga Bank of the Oi River, Shimada
Once you're in Shizuoka, there are more river crossings. On the 27th sheet, "The Oi River, Suruga Side," people with Western umbrellas and other travelers walk across boards laid over the shallow water. In the Edo period, building a bridge over the Oi River was forbidden, and so was crossing by boat. The only way across was by human power alone, a practice known as kawagoshi ("river crossing").
Make a wallpaper from this print (Suruga Bank of the Oi River, Shimada)
Atsuta Shore, Miya
The 47th sheet is "Atsuta Shore" at Miya (now Atsuta Ward, Nagoya). The title adds "seven ri by sea to Kuwana" (ri is an old unit of distance). The stretch from Miya to Kuwana was the only part of the Tokaido traveled by boat over the sea. In the book, too, the very next print is the landing at Kuwana, with the sea crossing behind you.
Sanjo Bridge, Saikyo
The last, the 60th sheet, is "Sanjo Bridge." People in their best clothes, travelers in straw hats and people with Western umbrellas cross the bridge over the Kamo River. On the yellow sign are the two characters for "Saikyo" (literally "western capital"), a name that was also on the table of contents.
A journey that began with a steam train and the telegraph crosses rivers on foot and the sea by boat, and ends at Sanjo Bridge. Back then, the train covered only the first short stretch. You can see every print in the book, including those not shown here, on its full list page.
