Hiroshige’s Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō is now on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is currently hosting Tōkaidō: Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige, an exhibition featuring 19th century Japanese artist Hiroshige’s iconic landscape woodblock prints.
The exhibition is a display of Hiroshige’s “Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō,” which is part of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ collection, and one of the artist’s most printed series.
According to the exhibition’s text, the way “he treated the landscape and its atmospheric effects as subject in their own right” set Hiroshige apart from his contemporaries.
His attention to his audience’s needs led him to incorporate Western elements in his artwork, such as perspective, horizontal picture format, shading, and synthetic blue pigments. The combination of a Western realistic approach and traditional Japanese prints depicting dreamy landscapes allowed him to provide his own narrative to the viewers.
“Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō” represents his visionary journey along the 490 km Eastern sea road that connects Japan’s Tokugawa Capital Edo (present-day Tokyo) to the former imperial capital, Kyoto. The series presents the unique characteristics of each region along with the mythical qualities that are embedded in the journey from one place to another.
Hiroshige’s appreciation of Japan’s nature and culture are entangled in his prints.
MMFA’s exhibition consists of two rooms displaying his 53 prints in chronological order with signs below each piece informing visitors of the exact location where the artist captured the sceneries.
Visitors are invited to link a print with its geographical location, leading them to explore region-specific celebrations, myths, habits, weather conditions, and choice of clothing.
In the second room, a map of Japan demonstrates the exact trail Hiroshige explored throughout his work. The map allows viewers to follow the chronology of the prints as they move from one location to the next, linking them to a specific instant in Hiroshige’s journey. The prints are cinematic representations of those locations, resembling animated dreamscapes complete with figures and architecture that embody the character of each place.
In this series of explorational journey, Hiroshige provides a clear frame of narrative and story for the viewers to feel the varying temperatures of the weather, to connect with familiar traditions and celebrations, and to understand the livelihood of people affected by weather conditions.
One of the prints in the second room depicts his time in Miya, “one of Tokaïdo’s most famous pilgrimage destinations,” according to the work’s text. This scene showing Miya’s summer solstice celebration captures the chaotic movements of people and horses pulling carts that stay out of the frame. This absence of sacred carts shows the imaginative aspect of Hiroshige’s practice, allowing the viewers to fill in the blanks themselves.
He focuses instead on key elements of the solstice celebration and presents them in a cinematic style based on a vision rooted in the reality of the event. On the right side of the print, a glimpse of the Atsuta Shinto Shrine facade shows the sacred symbol of Miya, emphasizing the importance of the ongoing celebration.
Tokaïdo: Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige will be exhibited at Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts until September 8th.
