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Exhibitions
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ANDO HIROSHIGE
Tokaido - Hoeido edition 21-25
21 Mariko
Two travellers having refreshment at a wayside teahouse, from which another traveller has just departed, and a woman with a child on her back waiting on them. Beside the teahouse grows a plum tree, just bursting into blossom against the rosy sky; behind rises a grey hill tinted with brown.
Here, travellers enjoy grated yam broth, the local speciality, while appreciating the green leaves and plum flowers of the early spring. Basho, the most famous haiku poet in Japan, praised the scenery and the broth in one of his haiku poems.
22 Okabe
A mountain torrent rushing between steep banks and walled in on one side by a stone embankment, along which people are passing. High peaks in the background.
The road here was enclosed on both sides by steep hills covered with dense forest and thick climbing ivy vines. This was considered one of the most fearsome stretches of the highway.
23 Fuji-jeda
Changing horses and coolies outside a resthouse.
A lively scene of a relay operation taking place under the supervision of the station officials. An official of lower rank enters porterage fares in a record book.
24 Shimada
View looking down upon a wide bed of the Oi River, with people waiting on its sand-banks to be taken across.
There was no bridge across the Oi River and travellers had to cross it in a variety of ways as is shown in the picture. It became difficult to cross when heavy rain turned the river into fierce, raging rapids.
25 Kanaya
Beyond the wide sandy flats of the river, across which a daimyo`s cortège is being carried, rises a jumble of foot hills, in a crevice of which nestles a village. In the background a high range of curiously hump-shaped mountains, printed in graded black from colour-blocks only; golden sky at the top.
A panoramic view of the landscape accentuates the expansive flat plain of the dry river bed. A variety of travellers attempt to wade across the river with the help of porters.
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