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Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景), actually composed of 118 woodblock landscape and genre scenes of mid-19th century Tokyo, is one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art. The series includes many of Hiroshige's most famous prints. It represents a celebration of the style and world of Japan's finest cultural flowering at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.<br/><br/> The series opens with spring (春の部). Scenes 1 though 42 represent the First to the Third Months, which are considered in Japan to be the spring season. Typically, early spring is marked by the festivities celebrated at the New Year, which begins the season. Blossoming plum trees are associated with the middle of spring, signifying the end of the cold weather and the beginning of the warm season.<br/><br/> Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重, 1797 – October 12, 1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重) (an irregular combination of family name and art name) and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige (一幽斎廣重).
The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō (木曾街道六十九次 Kiso Kaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi) or Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Road, is a series of ukiyo-e works created by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Keisai Eisen (1790-1848).<br/><br/> There are 71 total prints in the series (one for each of the 69 post stations and Nihonbashi; Nakatsugawa-juku has two prints). The common name for the Kiso Kaidō is 'Nakasendō' or 'Central Mountain Highway', so this series is also commonly referred to as the Sixty-nine Stations of the Nakasendō.<br/><br/> The Nakasendō was one of the Five Routes constructed under Tokugawa Ieyasu, a series of roads linking the historical capitol of Edo with the rest of Japan. The Nakasendō connected Edo with the then-capital of Kyoto. It was an alternate route to the Tōkaidō and travelled through the central part of Honshū, thus giving rise to its name, which means 'Central Mountain Road'. Along this road, there were sixty-nine different post stations (<i>-shuku</i> or <i>-juku</i>), which provided stables, food, and lodging for travelers.<br/><br/> Eisen produced the first 11 prints of the series, from Nihonbashi to Honjō-shuku, stretching from Tokyo to Saitama Prefecture. After that, Hiroshige took over production of the series.