Ando Hiroshige, Japanese, 1797–1858 - Ejiri, View Over Mio-no-Matsu-bara, in The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido - ca. 1834 v2 - T-Shirt

This woodblock print in coloured ink shows the post station of Ejiri looking out over the pine groves of Mio-no-Matsu-bara.

Visual Elements & Composition

The view is taken from a raised vantage point, so the eye moves across the landscape rather than resting on a single figure. The pine groves fill the scene, and the shoreline and open sky give the composition its sense of distance. Hiroshige built the picture on calm horizontal bands of land, water and air, which is characteristic of his landscape work.

Meaning & Symbolism

Ejiri was one of the fifty-three stations on the Tokaido, the coastal highway linking Edo, the shogunal capital, with Kyoto, the imperial seat. Travellers, poets and pilgrims passed through it, and the pine groves of Mio carried a long association with Japanese poetry and legend, including tales of a celestial being and its shoreline. Hiroshige, a master of ukiyo-e printmaking, made this print in the Edo period as part of his series on the Tokaido, and it records both the road and the landscape that travellers came to know.

Wearing the Tokaido

A tee lets this landscape move with the person wearing it. The print is seen at a glance from across the room and then up close as the wearer turns, much like the traveller on the Tokaido who saw Mio's pines unfold station by station. The design keeps its full composition on the shirt, so the pines, shoreline and distant view read as one scene.