Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces

In the Edo period, Japan was divided into 68 provinces (ryoseikoku) under regions known as the Gokishichido. This series selects one famous place for each province and adds one design of Edo, the shogun's seat, for 69 designs in all. The sequence begins with Yamashiro (Kyoto), proceeds through the Kinai, Tokaido, Tosando, Hokurikudo, San'indo, San'yodo, Nankaido, and Saikaido regions, and ends with Tsushima. The publisher was Koshimuraya Heisuke (Koshihei), and a single table of contents covering the whole set was issued afterward.

Whereas Hiroshige's representative works, such as his Tokaido series, used horizontal compositions, this series is entirely in vertical large-format nishiki-e. Compositions that make good use of the vertical format stand out: a large tree or rock placed in the foreground with the distant view peeking through, or a high viewpoint looking down. Hiroshige did not visit every place, and many designs are said to rely on illustrations from earlier guidebooks of famous places and gazetteers.

Publication began in the autumn of 1853 (Kaei 6), the same year Perry arrived, and more than 40 designs appeared that year, with the rest issued from 1854 to 1856 (Ansei 1-3). Hiroshige then began his final great work, "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." The Tokyo National Museum and the National Diet Library hold all 69 designs and the table of contents, and the Art Institute of Chicago also owns most of the designs.