Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Okazaki Stationfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Okazaki Station

  • Description

    At Okazaki-Yado, the 38th station of Tōkaidō from the Bijin Tōkaidō (Beauties for the Tōkaidō Road) series, a beauty stands in the foreground stretching her fingers in a magnificent chrysanthemum pattern winter kimono. In the background is the Yahagi Bridge (approximately 374 metres long) on which people in warm clothing cross the Otogawa River. The castle behind is the Okazaki Castle known as the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1554-1616). A similar landscape image is seen in Hiroshige’s Okazaki from The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road series.

  • Details

    show all
    Series
    Beauties for the Tōkaidō Road
    Associated place
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of creation)
    Asia › Japan › Honshū › Kantō › Tōkyō prefecture › Tōkyō (place of publication)
    Asia › Japan (Okazaki Castle) (subject)
    Asia › Japan (Okazaki Station) (subject)
    Asia › Japan (Yahagi Bridge, Otogawa River) (subject)
    Date
    1843 - 1847
    Artist/maker
    Keisai Eisen (1791 - 1848) (designer)
    Associated people
    Tsutaya Kichizō (active c. 1830 - 1880) (publisher)
    Material and technique
    nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, with bokashi (tonal gradation), printed with water-based vegetable pigments
    Dimensions
    39 x 27 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    printed › relief print › woodcut › colour woodcut
    Object type index
    visual representation › print
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Christ Church College, University of Oxford, 1983.
    Accession no.
    EA1983.76

  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 37 on p. 78, illus. p. 79

Glossary (3)

kimono, nishiki-e, vegetable pigments

  • kimono

    Kimonos, or 'the thing worn' in Japanese, had seasonal designs. The style of kimonos would change four times a year, and winter kimonos would be padded.

  • nishiki-e

    Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.

  • vegetable pigments

    Vegetable pigments were used to create coloured dyes for Japanese prints, paintings, and textiles. These pigments often faded over time due to the chemical reactions they underwent.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Beauties of the Four Seasons by Mitsuko Watanabe

    Beauties of the Four Seasons

    At Okazaki-Yado, the 38th station of Tōkaidō from the ‘Bijin Tōkaidō’ series, a beauty stands in the foreground stretching her fingers in a magnificent chrysanthemum pattern winter kimono. In the background is the Yahagi Bidge (approx. 374 metres long) on which people in warm clothing cross the Otogawa River. The castle behind is the Okazaki Castle know as the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1554-1616). A similar landscape image is seen in Hiroshige’s Okazaki from the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō series.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum