This reproduction is a new, individually printed and proofed, superior quality, giclee* process, fine art print. It is printed on 100% cotton rag acid-free, heavyweight fine art paper with a luxurious textured watercolor paper finish and archival pigment inks to ensure permanence. Reproduced at Hiroshige's actual dimensions of 15 x 10 inches, it is printed on larger 18 x 13 inch paper to allow ample room for matting and framing. Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856-1858, was composed of 118 splendid woodblock landscape and genre scenes of mid-nineteenth-century Tokyo. It remains one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art and is a celebration of the style and world of Japan's finest cultural flowering. Zōjōji Pagoda and Akabane, 1857 The Zōjōji Pagoda was part of the mausoleum of the second shogun, Hidetada. It lay at the southern edge of a hill above the tomb itself. Hiroshige chooses to show only the pagoda's top two stories, painted a splendid red. The dense mass of evergreens pressing close around the building was believed to protect against fire. The six vertical banners rising behind the stylized cloud in the center signify the famous Suitengō Shrine, known for assuring safe births. The area became crowded on the fifth day of each month, when the shrine was opened to the public. The view is to the southwest with Akabane Bridge spanning the Furukawa River in the center. Like Venice and Florence in Renaissance Italy, Edo (modern day Tokyo), was the cultural center of Japan. Visually, Hiroshige’s woodcuts may be taken as a travelogue of mid-ninetieth century Japan that predates the invention of color photography. In essence, that is what the series presents – a color saturated panorama of daily life in Tokyo and its outlying districts with its firework displays, geishas on parade, teahouses and the city’s fashionable commercial and scenic districts. The woodcuts were all of uniform size, approximately 15 x 10 inches (oban tateye format). Hiroshige’s signature – Hiroshige-ga, appears is the vertical cartouche on red background in the lower left hand part of each print. The vertical cartouche, also on red background, in the upper right section is the series title (Meiso Edo hyakkei) and the smaller square in multiple colors bears the name of the individual print. The publisher often left his seal in a vertical cartouche in the lower left hand margin. The censor’s seals are those in the upper right margin. Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) was the foremost woodblock artist of his day specializing in scenes of birds, fish, flowers and landscapes. His bird and flower prints defined the kacho-e school of landscape scenes within the larger ukiyo-e genre of portraits of courtesans, actors and scenes from everyday life. During a forty year career Hiroshige produced thousands of kacho-e designs. Many also include short descriptive poems (haiku) by collaborating popular poets. Reproduction - Heavyweight Fine Art Paper, watercolor texture surface & archival pigment inks. Original Medium: Woodcut with colored inks on paper Image Size - actual, 15 x 10 inches printed on larger 18 x 13 inch paper to allow ample borders for matting and framing. NOTE: The Da Vinci Art Prints watermark on this image is for computer viewing only and of course NOT on the actual print. PayPal only please. Prints ship in a heavy protective cardboard tube. **the giclee process produces a high quality, fine art reproduction from a high-resolution digital file of an image. The file is then printed with a high-resolution photo generation printer on a fine art paper. Most artists and working photographers today use the giclee process to produce reproductions of their original artwork and photographs. As with any original art or fine art reproduction, it is recommended that prints are framed and displayed under glass to prevent color fade or shift over the years.