Hiroshige 100 Famous Views of Edo (Tapa dura)

Visit Edo, modern day Tokyo, as experienced by Utagawa Hiroshige in this wonderful tourist guide from the 1850s. Experience Edo as the Japanese loved it, a sophisticated city catering to a wealthy elite of daimyo, local rulers that regularly had to spend time away from their lands, in Edo, where the shogun could keep an eye on them. The 100 Famous Views of Edo was one of the popular print series made in Japan, like Hokusais series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which had been published earlier in the 1830s and which influenced Hiroshige tremendously (ISBN ES 978-8-411-744-935). But much more important is the influence the 100 Famous Views of Edo had on European impressionists like Van Gogh, Degas, Manet and Monet. Hiroshige impressed with cropped items to create focus and with his horizontal format.