Seki, from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (c. 1848–49): Art, History and Details

Seki, from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (c. 1848–49) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print from one of Hiroshige’s later Tōkaidō series completely reconceives the scene at Seki. An earlier series showed an entourage of a daimyō, preparing to leave an inn, but this view plunges the station into the depths of a dark winter. Daimyō were regional military rulers during Japan’s Edo period. As the central government required them to live in the capital, Edo, in alternating years, daimyō processions along the Tōkaidō thoroughfare were a frequent sight. This print, however, emphasizes the pilgrimage route to Japan’s principal site of religious worship, the Ise Shrine, indicated by the traditional red gate to the shrine.

Object facts

• Title: Seki, from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō
• Date: c. 1848–49
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 24.8 x 37.5 cm (9 3/4 x 14 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.186

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.