Hiroshige: A Hundred Views of Edo

London: Sirocco, 2003. Hardcover. VG/VG (light shelf wear to boards and dust jacket). Color illustrated boards with black lettering, matching dust jacket, 255 pp, color illustrated frontispiece, profusely illustrated in color and bw. "Modern Tokyo bears little resenblance to the city Ando Hiroshige depicted in 'One Hundred Views of Edo'. In the late 1850's Edo, which became Tokyo in 1868, was already one of the world's largest conurbations. Even then, densely built up areas alternated with the gardens of mansions and monasteries. Warehouses and commercial districts sat alongside rice paddies and fishing grounds. For nineteenth-century provincial Japan, Edo was the centre from which fashion, fascinating rumours and innumerable innovations were borne and disseminated. A visit tot he capital was an exciting event, memories could be enhanced by souvenirs purchased there, particularly the woodblock prints of the 'One Hundred Views of Edo" series which recorded the sights and daily life of the Japanese capital in all its rich variety."- Dust jacket.