The reader may already be acquainted with the Hoeidō series (1833-34) of The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, author’s ISBN 978-1-956215-09-0. This was the most popular print series ever made in Japan.

In this Kyōka series (a different publisher, 1838) we follow Hiroshige on the same journey from Edo, modern day Tokyo, to Kyoto, when he travelled the road to participate in an important procession in 1832.

There were 53 post stations along this important road, apart from the start and terminus, in all 55 prints, which are all here in the order from Edo to Kyoto. The reader experiences the same journey with a completely different set of prints and can compare to the Hoeidō series.

It is possible to travel the same road today and some villages are still looking quite like they did back then. The postal stations were constructed between 1601 and 1624.