One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

The publisher Uoya Eikichi began issuing the series in the second month of 1856 (Ansei 3). It appeared as Edo was recovering from the great Ansei earthquake of the previous year, and it depicts the city's famous places and seasonal events, from Nihonbashi, Asakusa, and both banks of the Sumida River to outlying excursion spots such as Meguro, Oji, and Shinagawa. Nearly all the places depicted are in present-day Tokyo, but a few designs show areas on the edge of Edo, such as Kawaguchi (Saitama) and Mama, Konodai, and Horie (Chiba).

Unlike the horizontal format of series such as "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido," this series uses a vertical large format, often placing a large object in the foreground to let the distant scene peek through, or taking a high vantage point looking down. Hiroshige died in the ninth month of 1858 (Ansei 5) while the work was in progress, but publication continued until the following month. It is said that his pupil Hiroshige II had a hand in the last three designs. In 1859 (Ansei 6), Hiroshige II added "Akasaka Kiribatake in Rain at Dusk."

The set came with a single table of contents, with lettering by Baiso-tei Gengyo, that lists the titles divided into spring, summer, autumn, and winter. This site numbers the designs 1 to 118 following that table (the summer section also has an alternative reading order) and places Hiroshige II's design as number 119. "Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake" and "Plum Garden in Kameido" are also known for having been copied in oil by Vincent van Gogh. The Tokyo National Museum and the National Diet Library each hold the complete set.