The year 2024 is a milestone year marking both the 400th anniversary of the completion of Shono-juku, the last post station of the Fifty-Three Stations of Tokaido, and the 100th running of the Hakone Ekiden relay race. To commemorate this occasion, an exhibition focusing on Utagawa Hiroshige 's the "Fifty-Three Stations of Tokaido" (Hoeido version) will be held at the Okada Museum of Art, located in Hakone, the tenth post station and known as the most challenging point on the Tokaido.
The reason why this work continues to be highly praised is that it not only depicts the beautiful scenery of each season, but also includes information on famous places and specialties from each region, while vividly portraying the characters that appear, stirring up a longing for travel. The people of Edo, who dreamed of traveling the Tokaido, must also have looked at the paintings and fantasized about them, experiencing the feeling of traveling from the comfort of their own homes.
This exhibition will also showcase masterpieces featuring Mt. Fuji, and works by popular Kyoto artists Itō Jakuchū and Maruyama Ōkyo, along with Suzuki Kiitsu of the Edo Rimpa school, who lived in the same era as Hiroshige (approximately 30 works). Visitors can enjoy the feeling of traveling from Edo to Kyoto in the exhibition rooms.
*All 55 works in the "Fifty-Three Stations of Tokaido" will be displayed in two parts: the first half and the second half of the exhibition.

Feature Exhibition: The World of the Tale of Genji

The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the mid-Heian period (11th century), has been popular since its inception, and has been depicted in paintings in various forms, including the "Tale of Genji Illustrated Scrolls" (12th century). Particularly during the Edo period, books with easy-to-understand annotations and parody books were published, making them accessible not only to the nobles and samurai families but also to the common people, and leading to the creation of diverse works in the field of art. In this special collection, you can enjoy "The World of the Tale of Genji" through about 10 paintings and crafts related to "The Tale of Genji."