Image: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo
Tokyo National Museum will hold ‘Utagawa Hiroshige: Best Angles of Edo’ starting on 9/29. The exhibition commemorates the acquisition of the collection. It is the Tokyo National Museum’s first full-scale exhibition devoted to Hiroshige.
The exhibition is centered on Hiroshige’s three major series: ‘The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō’ in the first period, ‘The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō’ in the second, and ‘One Hundred Famous Views of Edo’ in the third. The complete works in these series will be shown at once, described as an exceptionally rare opportunity in Japan and internationally.
Representative works include ‘Nihonbashi: Morning View’ from ‘The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō,’ ‘Seba’ from ‘The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō,’ and ‘Asakusa Rice Fields and Torinomachi Festival’ from ‘One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.’
The collection’s former owner, Uchiyama Susumu, built a Hiroshige-centered ukiyo-e collection while running a trading company. He also helped establish the Japan Ukiyo-e Association, now the International Ukiyo-e Society, and contributed to the development of ukiyo-e research.
The venue will also include a high-definition video section presenting the color qualities of Hiroshige’s works on large monitors.
