The Tōkaidō meisho zue (1797) on the 53 stations of the Tōkaidō Road is one of the most important Japanese illustrated woodblock printed books.
It is a forerunner for the many Tōkaidō series of colored prints of the ukiyp-e genre like the ones by Hokusai and Hiroshige a.o.
The intention of publishing this is to give lovers of Japanese prints some background material. It may also be used as a coloring book although there is a lot of text.
The Meisho zue printed books' illustrations are originally in black and white and are therefore perfect for coloring exercise and also for the study of landscape design.
The original size was hanshibon, c. 26 x 18.5 cms / ~10.25in X 7in.
This volume is vol 1 of six, which were each enveloped in a rice colored folder, Chinese style, and the pages stiched together. The authors hope to be able to publish the rest in the series as well as some other printed books series.
For the reader wishing more information the authors refer to their book Hokusai 36 Views of Mt Fuji, which is available in pocket version, hard cover and large format.
