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Hiroshige's Japan: On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master - A Modern-day Artist's Journey Along the Old Tokaido Road
Journey along the famed Tokaido Road--an ancient thoroughfare with a modern twist.The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido is the best-known work of the great 19th century Japanese woodblock artist Utagawa Hiroshige. The series of 53 masterful woodblock prints depicts stops along the ancient Tokaido road--which, from the eleventh to the nineteenth century, was the main thoroughfare between Tokyo and Kyoto.Though the road itself is now submerged under Japan's twenty-first-century urban landscape, French artist Philippe Delord set out to see if he could find the original locations, with just a moped, sketchbook, watercolors and a book of Hiroshige's prints.Hiroshige's Japan allows readers to make the journey alongside Delord, venturing from Tokyo and Mount Fuji to mountain passes and rugged coastlines. Inside are all 53 original scenery prints made by Hiroshige, alongside their modern-day equivalent by Delord. A lively commentary about his experiences as he tries to locate each of the 53 scenes (without speaking Japanese!) offers readers an insightful, and often humorous, look into both modern and historical Japan.Part travelogue, part work of art, this book is sure to delight armchair travelers, history buffs, art enthusiasts and Japanophiles alike!
168 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 12, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 23, 2022
French artist/author Phillippe Delord made several trips to Japan's historic Tokaido Road, during 2014-2016. Delord wanted to draw and paint scenes of what he saw there. His inspiration was artist Utagawa Hiroshige's print series, "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido".
This book showcases both Hiroshige's original prints and the author's drawings and water colors of his observations of Tokaido Road, almost 200 years later. The author's accompanying commentary was also interesting and showed flashes of gentle humor.
Delord's art work is delicate, with soft natural colors. It appears muted. His impressions include cherry blossoms, trees, Japanese temples and shrines, tea houses, fish, restaurants and people.
I enjoyed the art work and the armchair travel.
3.5 stars
This book showcases both Hiroshige's original prints and the author's drawings and water colors of his observations of Tokaido Road, almost 200 years later. The author's accompanying commentary was also interesting and showed flashes of gentle humor.
Delord's art work is delicate, with soft natural colors. It appears muted. His impressions include cherry blossoms, trees, Japanese temples and shrines, tea houses, fish, restaurants and people.
I enjoyed the art work and the armchair travel.
3.5 stars
February 19, 2023
What a beautiful book. I am familiar with The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, and I’ll admit, I expected a bit more substance to this book. More history and details on Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock prints and one-to-one pictures of the prints with how the scenes look today would've been interesting! But I learned that there are scarce traces of the ancient road today; only a select few stations can even have a one-to-one comparison.
Instead, the book has a much more simple purpose in mind, and I'm actually glad it does. This is simply a book about a French man on a scooter describing his journey on the modern-day Tokaido (which roughly translates to ‘eastern sea route’) of Japan primarily through his hand-drawn/painted pictures. He briefly describes his journey here and there (which can be humourous and interesting at times), but he mostly makes his artwork speak for itself. Some places he went to were extraordinarily beautiful—like Yoshida castle, various temples, and different views of Mt Fuji. And other places were just ordinarily beautiful—the countryside, streets, restaurants, and even the view from a water pipe that he spent the night in!
All in all, this a beautiful book to meander through and soak in the beautiful pictures—the old and the new. Going through this book was a meditative experience, and it certainly fanned the flame for my desire to go to Japan. But it also inspired me to pick up my drawing pencils and document my current surroundings; beauty can be found everywhere, even in the ordinary.
Instead, the book has a much more simple purpose in mind, and I'm actually glad it does. This is simply a book about a French man on a scooter describing his journey on the modern-day Tokaido (which roughly translates to ‘eastern sea route’) of Japan primarily through his hand-drawn/painted pictures. He briefly describes his journey here and there (which can be humourous and interesting at times), but he mostly makes his artwork speak for itself. Some places he went to were extraordinarily beautiful—like Yoshida castle, various temples, and different views of Mt Fuji. And other places were just ordinarily beautiful—the countryside, streets, restaurants, and even the view from a water pipe that he spent the night in!
All in all, this a beautiful book to meander through and soak in the beautiful pictures—the old and the new. Going through this book was a meditative experience, and it certainly fanned the flame for my desire to go to Japan. But it also inspired me to pick up my drawing pencils and document my current surroundings; beauty can be found everywhere, even in the ordinary.
October 27, 2022
In the new books room of our library (the only area in our library I have the time to visit these days) there are specific runs of dewey numbers that I look at. My habit is to first look at the language and linguistics books which gradually shade into the math and sciences area. This area of gradual shading is sometimes where I find the most interesting books, like Fifty Sounds: A Memoir of Language, Learning, and Longing by Polly Barton, a book that ended up being one of my favorite reads of this year.
It is these areas in-between that seem to have the books that catch my eye. I go to these areas for the major dewey numbers of language and science but it is the minor stuff just on the edges that always seems more intriguing.
Back at the end of September after perusing the shelves I noted above, I turned around and glanced at the shelf of hobby related books which gradually gives way or shades into the art books. In that between area, just as you skim past the latest catalog of Star Wars collectibles and see that book of beautiful impressionist painters, the spine of Hiroshige's Japan caught my eye.
I am only familiar with Utagawa Hiroshige's art work because of stamp collecting. Many of the woodblock prints in this book appear on stamps issued by Japan including a complete stamp issue of all 53 noted in this book, which came out as a full or souvenir sheet in 2020. Hiroshige famously painted scenes from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, a road that stretched from what is modern-day Tokyo to the ancient capital of Kyoto.
Hiroshige's woodblock prints are gorgeous in my opinion but I also really enjoyed Philippe Delord's road trip, following the modern-day traces of Japan's Tokaido road. Delord visits each town or city depicted in the Fifty-Three Stations and draws or paints water colors of what he sees there now. Delord's artwork is different from Hiroshige but just as enjoyable and he has short and sometimes humorous tales to tell along the way as he draws and rides his motor scooter from station to station.
It is these areas in-between that seem to have the books that catch my eye. I go to these areas for the major dewey numbers of language and science but it is the minor stuff just on the edges that always seems more intriguing.
Back at the end of September after perusing the shelves I noted above, I turned around and glanced at the shelf of hobby related books which gradually gives way or shades into the art books. In that between area, just as you skim past the latest catalog of Star Wars collectibles and see that book of beautiful impressionist painters, the spine of Hiroshige's Japan caught my eye.
I am only familiar with Utagawa Hiroshige's art work because of stamp collecting. Many of the woodblock prints in this book appear on stamps issued by Japan including a complete stamp issue of all 53 noted in this book, which came out as a full or souvenir sheet in 2020. Hiroshige famously painted scenes from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, a road that stretched from what is modern-day Tokyo to the ancient capital of Kyoto.
Hiroshige's woodblock prints are gorgeous in my opinion but I also really enjoyed Philippe Delord's road trip, following the modern-day traces of Japan's Tokaido road. Delord visits each town or city depicted in the Fifty-Three Stations and draws or paints water colors of what he sees there now. Delord's artwork is different from Hiroshige but just as enjoyable and he has short and sometimes humorous tales to tell along the way as he draws and rides his motor scooter from station to station.
July 16, 2022
4.5 stars! What a wonderful travelogue! Transportive illustrations. Succinct yet descriptive text in each section that, along with the paintings and sketches, are a window into each station on the Tokaido road past and present. Highly recommend.
July 29, 2022
(Edited review after first giving it 3stars)
I didn’t love the illustrations or the story-telling… but skimming back through it after first writing a weak 3-star review, I realized some of my feelings were due to envy. I love Japan, and think back on my time living there fondly. I loved travel and food and people there. I love the language and the nature and the cities.
I want to do what he did. Take a scooter and follow the Old Tokaido and draw and meet people and eat local specialities. (I would skip his tendency to sleep outside or in water tunnels with the mosquitos though.)
The illustrations are often half completed — the bones are there, but colors left out of parts of the sketches, or notes scribbled on the side. This reflects how the author made his way along Hiroshige’s path, trying and often failing to find the original scenes in modern Japan. The author captures just an essence of hiroshige. At first they put me off. But on the whole the illustrations make sense, and make you feel you are side by side with the author.
I love how he captured non-Hiroshige scenes… this gives a flavor of the author’s travel experience (accident on his motorbike! Eating soba!). I was left, however, wanting to hear more about his choices in what he painted, how his scenes reflected the views of Hiroshige (or didn’t as the case often was!!! Since development and construction have dramatically changed the views).
My main dissatisfaction is the story-telling, but again I think it’s just a different perspective. He talks about how Japanese people might see him as a disturbance to the “cohesion” of Japan, reflecting a stereotype of Japan as uniform. He remarks that a lady who shows him where the coin lockers are yet be irritated with foreigners who can’t speak Japanese… what struck me from this was her generosity in escorting him to the lockers.
Overall, this makes me want go to Japan and see the Tokaido myself!
I didn’t love the illustrations or the story-telling… but skimming back through it after first writing a weak 3-star review, I realized some of my feelings were due to envy. I love Japan, and think back on my time living there fondly. I loved travel and food and people there. I love the language and the nature and the cities.
I want to do what he did. Take a scooter and follow the Old Tokaido and draw and meet people and eat local specialities. (I would skip his tendency to sleep outside or in water tunnels with the mosquitos though.)
The illustrations are often half completed — the bones are there, but colors left out of parts of the sketches, or notes scribbled on the side. This reflects how the author made his way along Hiroshige’s path, trying and often failing to find the original scenes in modern Japan. The author captures just an essence of hiroshige. At first they put me off. But on the whole the illustrations make sense, and make you feel you are side by side with the author.
I love how he captured non-Hiroshige scenes… this gives a flavor of the author’s travel experience (accident on his motorbike! Eating soba!). I was left, however, wanting to hear more about his choices in what he painted, how his scenes reflected the views of Hiroshige (or didn’t as the case often was!!! Since development and construction have dramatically changed the views).
My main dissatisfaction is the story-telling, but again I think it’s just a different perspective. He talks about how Japanese people might see him as a disturbance to the “cohesion” of Japan, reflecting a stereotype of Japan as uniform. He remarks that a lady who shows him where the coin lockers are yet be irritated with foreigners who can’t speak Japanese… what struck me from this was her generosity in escorting him to the lockers.
Overall, this makes me want go to Japan and see the Tokaido myself!
August 8, 2025
Delord, a French painter, travelled to Japan and visited the sites of Utagawa Hiroshige's series of woodcuts The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido. At each site he writes a blurb about what he sees, includes a piece of art that he created on the spot (usually a detailed sketch with notes on color and sometimes actual coloring) and includes a small picture of Hiroshige's print from that particular station.
It's a lovely book and well done. The art, even those that feel incomplete, is excellent. It is remarkable to me that Delord can sit and create such work in seemingly any setting. The book disappointed me, however, in terms of what it hinted at with the blurbs. There is no sense of the journey, which is kind of the point of both Hiroshige's initial prints of the Tokaido Road and Delord's modern endeavor. Delord hints at challenges - one night he sleeps at a temple, another he spends in a drainage pipe - but there's no sense of time or effort. It's the difference between watching a slide show versus a movie.
If I accepted the book for what it is, essentially a coffee table book, it's probably four stars, but I think it could have been a lot more and so it feels like a missed opportunity.
It's a lovely book and well done. The art, even those that feel incomplete, is excellent. It is remarkable to me that Delord can sit and create such work in seemingly any setting. The book disappointed me, however, in terms of what it hinted at with the blurbs. There is no sense of the journey, which is kind of the point of both Hiroshige's initial prints of the Tokaido Road and Delord's modern endeavor. Delord hints at challenges - one night he sleeps at a temple, another he spends in a drainage pipe - but there's no sense of time or effort. It's the difference between watching a slide show versus a movie.
If I accepted the book for what it is, essentially a coffee table book, it's probably four stars, but I think it could have been a lot more and so it feels like a missed opportunity.
September 10, 2023
A delightful little book. My only criticism is that I'd like to have seen larger reproductions of Hiroshiges's original prints. The loose structure of the travel narrative and the modern watercolours and sketches worked well. Nicely produced volume.
June 18, 2025
Loved the sketches and paintings, and the context of the various places he went to. Wish there was more of a search for places of the past that might shed light of Hiroshige’s Edo, but this book has still given me ideas for my future holidays.
August 18, 2022
Amazing watercolors. Interesting book.
September 16, 2022
Cool journey along the tokaido road
February 18, 2024
A beautiful artistic journey through the past and present. The small stories in between make you feel like you are along for the ride. Truly a beautiful compilation of art and history.
March 1, 2025
Beautiful book!
May 18, 2024
The author visits each of the 53 stations along the old Tokaido Road between Tokyo and Kyoto, pausing to create watercolor sketches at each. He pairs his art with copies of Hiroshige's prints from each station and includes a brief description of the history and his impressions.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews