BERNA, CRISTINA / THOMSEN, ERIC
The Scenic Places of the Tokaido (Tokaido Meisho no Uchi) by 17 artists is based on the list of prints on the Kunisada Project website run by Dr Horst Graebner with a total of 162 ukiyo-e prints.
It is a fantastic work, an effort presumably directed by the shogun´s political office to commemorate his attempt to preserve a joint rulership with the emperor over Japan.
It differs from the many other Tokaido series by the large number of prints, at least three times as many in a series. If differs by the number of people in the prints - the procession consisted of 3,000 people.
It also marks the end of the ukiyo-e Tokaido, where the forced travel of the daimyo - sankin-kotai - had contributed so much to the economic and cultural development along these roads and indeed to the whole print making industry. The shogun abolished sankin-kotai in 1862.
