On verso in pencil, lower left: 101 $1.50. On mat in pencil: Jo XVIII set 35, n.392, Hiroshige, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido, Yoshida. Signed: Hiroshige ga.

Nishiki-e, horizontal oban; colored ink on paper.

Color woodblock print with an image of a bridge, water, and rooftops.

Lying near the Toyokawa River, Yoshida (the present-day city of Toyohashi in Aichi prefecture) was a major station on the Tokaido Road. It was also the town of an ancient castle built in the fifteenth century. Hiroshige depicts Yoshida with its main features: the Toyokawa River, the bridge across it, and the castle. We see the bridge in the middle ground at a distance, the far bank crowded with houses.
The close-up view of the castle and its compound occupies the right corner of the composition. The structure is undergoing repairs; scaffolding has been erected, and repairmen are working on the roof. One of the workers on the scaffolding looks out at the daimyo procession on the bridge. Hiroshige makes an interesting contrast between the distant bridge and the town of Yoshida and the close view of the castle in the immediate foreground. It is a subject and compositional device similar to the one Hokusai used in his view of Surugacho Street in Edo (cat. 26), in the Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji.
Yoshida was also famous as the home of elegantly attired prostitutes, commonly described as “ladies of the night dressed in beautiful kimono of tie-dye design,” who served the travelers.
(ref. “Hokusai and Hiroshige,” p.198 )

Hoeido (Takenouchi Magohachi) seal.

This object has the following keywords:

• Hiroshige's Tokaido (c. 1833-1834)
• Tokaido Road, Japan

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