Tōto shōkei ichiran 東都勝景一覧

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Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

Published in 1800, the two volumes of Tōto shōkei ichiran (Fine views of the eastern capital at a glance) presentkyōka poetry above double-page illustrations of famous sites in Edo. Hokusai’s illustrations include tall, slender figures of courtesans and their patrons, kabuki actors facing a theater packed with avid fans, and scenic sites for seasonal excursions, such as Asukayama, famous for its cherry blossoms, and the Kameido Shrine with its wisterias in full bloom.

In these volumes, Hokusai’s pictures, which present detailed and varied images of the vibrant urban milieu in which he lived, are no longer occasional embellishments in books primarily of poetry. His books of kyōka with Edo cityscapes integrate poetry and imagery in a new and engaging form that Jack Hillier has referred to as “poetic topography,” to distinguish them from ordinary illustrated guidebooks (Hillier 1980, p. 43).

Selected reading:

Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration (London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 47–49.

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, vol. 1 (New York: Sotheby’s Publications, 1987), pp. 497–99.