『東海道五十三次』（保永堂版）は天保４年（1833）頃、歌川広重が絵師として参加し版元竹内孫八（保永堂）と鶴屋喜右衛門（僊鶴堂）から共同出版されて大成功を収めた大判55 枚の連作浮世絵が初版となります。
五十三次というタイトルですが、旅の始まりの「江戸・日本橋」と終わりの「京都・三条大橋」を含めた全55図で「道を歩く流れ」を演出し、渡し船を待つ旅人、雨に打たれながら歩く人、宿場で休む様子など、人々が自然の厳しさや美しさを受け入れながら旅をする姿を印象的に描いています。
江戸時代、東海道は最も整備された街道でした。とはいえ当時は誰もが自由に旅をできたわけではなく、旅は今よりもずっと特別な体験だったと考えられます。庶民にとって『東海道五十三次』で各宿場を描いた木版画を見ることは、まるで自身が憧れの旅に出ている気分になれる構成となっており、このシリーズで広重の人気は不動のものとなりました。
初版から200年を経た現在も、世界で変わらぬ人気を支えているのは、各時代にこの木版技術を支えた版元と、優れた技術を次世代へと受け継いできた彫り師・摺り師の存在があったからこそと言えます。
今、展示中のシリーズは初版から現在に至るまでの中でも特に彫りと摺りの技術に熟達した職人が揃っていた時代の1952年に再版制作されたものです。
雅堂は井堂雅夫の想いを継ぎ、これからも木版画が世界に知られ愛されるために、そして版元としてもこの技術が未来に続いていくために努力を重ねていきたいと考えています。
Blog post
Jul. 2026
“The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hoeidō Edition) ”
The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Hoeidō Edition) was first published around 1833 (Tempo 4) as a series of fifty-five large-format ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Created with the participation of the master artist Utagawa Hiroshige, the series was jointly published by the print publishers Takeuchi Magohachi (Hoeidō) and Tsuruya Kiemon (Senkakudō), achieving remarkable commercial success.
Although the title refers to the “Fifty-three Stations,” the complete series consists of fifty-five prints, including Nihonbashi in Edo, the starting point of the journey, and Sanjō Ōhashi in Kyoto, its destination. Arranged as a continuous visual narrative, the series captures the rhythm of travel along the Tōkaidō. Hiroshige vividly portrays travelers waiting for ferries, walking through driving rain, or resting at post stations, expressing the way people embraced both the beauty and the hardships of nature during their journeys.
During the Edo period, the Tōkaidō was the best-developed highway in Japan. Even so, travel was not freely accessible to everyone, and undertaking a journey was a far more extraordinary experience than it is today. For ordinary people, viewing Hiroshige’s woodblock prints of each post station offered the sensation of embarking on a longed-for journey themselves. This imaginative and immersive quality made the series immensely popular and firmly established Hiroshige’s reputation as one of the leading ukiyo-e artists.
Nearly two centuries after its first publication, the enduring worldwide appeal of The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō is owed not only to Hiroshige’s artistry but also to the publishers who preserved the tradition of woodblock printing and to the highly skilled block carvers and printers who faithfully passed their techniques down from one generation to the next.
The series currently on display is a 1952 reprint, produced during a period when exceptional craftsmen—renowned for their mastery of carving and printing—were active. It is widely regarded as one of the finest reproductions created since the original edition.
GADO is committed to carrying forward Masao Ido’s vision and aspirations. We will continue striving to ensure that Japanese woodblock prints become ever more widely known and cherished around the world, while also working as a publisher to preserve and pass this remarkable tradition and its craftsmanship on to future generations.
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