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Маршрут Кисокайдо через Японию был проложен в начале 1600-х годов тогдашним правителем страны Токугавой Иэясу, который распорядился установить промежуточные посты по всей длине трудного перехода между Эдо (современный Токио) и Киото. Были созданы гостиницы, магазины и рестораны, чтобы обеспечить пропитание и ночлег усталым путешественникам. В 1835 году известному художнику по ксилографии Кэйсаю Эйзену было поручено создать серию работ, описывающих путешествие по Кисокайдо. После создания 24 гравюр Эйзена сменил Утагава Хиросигэ, который завершил серию из 70 гравюр в 1838 году. The Kisokaido route through Japan was laid in the early 1600s by the then ruler of the country, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who ordered the installation of intermediate posts along the entire length of the difficult transition between Edo (modern Tokyo) and Kyoto. Hotels, shops and restaurants have been set up to provide food and overnight accommodation for tired travelers. In 1835, the famous woodcut artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works describing a journey through Kisokaido. After creating 24 engravings, Eisen was succeeded by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed a series of 70 engravings in 1838. Both Eisen and Hiroshige were masters in the field of printing. At the sixty-nine stations along Kisokaido, we find both different styles of artists and their shared experiences. From the busy Nihonbashi starting point to the fortress city of Iwamurata, Eisen chooses a more subdued palette, but excels in depicting figures, especially glamorous women, and enjoys shots of activity along the route, from horse shoeing to rice winnowing. Hiroshige demonstrates his skills as a landscape painter with grandiose and evocative scenes, be it the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the impregnable Wada Pass or the moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki. In general, the Sixty-Nine Stations collection is not only a masterpiece in woodcut technique, including bold compositions and experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the appearance of the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN volume is taken from one of the best preserved first editions and revives the series in our compact anniversary edition.