Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858), Matsuida, from the series: the Sixty-nine Stations of Kiso Kaido, published by Nihon Hanga Kenkyujo, Japan, Showa period, 1960s -1970s

Color woodcut, ink, paper, 26x38 cm, artist's signature, craftsmen's mark in the margin

The Matsuida postal station was the 17th station on the Kiso Kaido road. The woodcut shows travelers and pack mules moving through mountainous terrain, reflecting the nature of the route.

The Kiso Kaido series was designed in collaboration between Hiroshige and Keisei Eisen in the mid-1930s. The series chronicles life along the Kiso Highway, the upper mountain road from Edo to Kyoto. Kiso Kaido landscapes maintain Hiroshige's typical balance between characters and nature, with masterful depictions of weather and seasons and many moonlit scenes. These poetic and atmospheric views offer a captivating vision of Japan's beautiful and often dramatic landscapes.

Hiroshige Andō, alsoknown as Hiroshige Utagawa, is one of Japan's best-known painters and printmakers. His father, Andō Genuemon, was a low-ranking samurai and fire brigade officer. From the age of sixteen, Hiroshige studied in the studio of Utagawa Toyohira, under whose tutelage he developed his skills and talent. Young Hiroshige soaked up the artistic atmosphere while helping in the daily life of his father's brigade. It wasn't until he was 27 that he fully decided to follow the path of artistic creation. After his teacher's death in 1822, he was offered to take over the studio after his master, but Hiroshige declined the offer and set his sights on independence. Hiroshige's artistic output has not been fully catalogued to this day, but it is estimated that some 5,000 works were created, primarily in the color woodcut technique. He began his career with portraits of beautiful women (bijin-ga) and images of kabuki actors (yakusha-e), but after the death of his teacher he focused primarily on native landscapes. Hiroshige came from a samurai family, however, he identified with bourgeois Edo culture. He became primarily known as the creator of landscape series such as Fifty-three Stations on the Tōkaidō Road(Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi), One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo(Meisho Edo hyakkei) and Sixty-nine Stations on the Kisokaidō Road(Kisokaidō rokujūkyū tsugi no uchi). He masterfully depicted the landscape at different times of the year and day, and was interested in weather phenomena. He experimented with effects and composition and used unconventional shortcuts. A unique element in his works is the depiction of atmospheric phenomena such as snowfall or rainfall, as well as gales and storms. On the other hand, he was interested in the phenomenon of shadow and its effect in both landscape and domestic interiors.

In the second half of the 20th century, Japanese artists and publishers collaborated to reproduce famous woodblock prints for interested collectors looking for rare designs. New blocks were created, and the prints were painstakingly printed by artisans in the same method as the 19th century originals - one block for each color. Reissues of woodblock prints are an opportunity to collect and enjoy the famous designs by renowned Japanese artists