HIROSHIGE-GA GOJUSAN-TSUGI GENJO SHASHIN TAISHO. Hiroshige 53 Stages of the Tokaido - Past and Present. ILLUSTRATED with Fifty-Five Color Prints of Hiroshige's 53 Stations of the Tokaido, each side-by-side with a c.1910 photograph of the locale most likely used as Hiroshige’s source of inspiration. It is interesting to see how the locales looked to Hiroshige many years before the Taisho Era photographs of the same locales were taken (i.e. 1833 and c.1910). 

Published by Tokoen, Tokyo, 1918, as part of the nationwide celebration of the 60th anniversary of Hiroshige's death (b.1797 d.1858).

Hardcover book, reddish brown cloth covered boards, front board embossed with gilt lettering and white designs, ribbon tied, 9x12 inches (22.5x30 cm), illustrated endpapers, 120 pages plus a 40 page appendix telling a classic Japanese comedic tale about two men traveling the Tokaido road.

ILLUSTRATED with 56 Color Woodblock Prints, 55 reproducing Hiroshige's 53 Stages of Tokaido (Hiroshige's 53 stations of the Tokaido consisted of 55 prints), and a frontispiece plate of Hiroshige; plus 55 b&w photographs showing the locale of each Hiroshige print as it was when the c.1910 photograph was taken.

Condition: The covers are abraded, the front endpapers have a few small worm holes, there is an old bookseller's catalog description taped on a blank prelim, the inner pages are lightly age toned as normal, there is some soiling, foxing, and light staining here and there mostly in the margins; overall the pages are sound and the prints and photographs are bright and lovely.

A complete copy of this rare side-by-side look at Hiroshige's 55 prints of the 53 stations of Tokaido, and corresponding photographs of the same locale taken in 1918.