Meisho Edo hyakkei

One ring is one year. The outer ring follows the spring, summer, autumn and winter sections of the original table of contents, clockwise from the top; inside, Edo Castle is the centre and each dot is the place of one print (distances square-rooted). Hover over a print to see where in Edo it is; click to view it larger.

One city,
four seasons

The Meisho Edo hyakkei was Utagawa Hiroshige's last great series; he kept drawing it until just before his death. It came out with a table of contents that splits the set into spring, summer, autumn and winter: the same city of Edo, walked again season by season. Here the works follow that table round a ring of one year.

Inside the ring is a map. Edo Castle is at the centre, each dot is the place of one print, and directions are true; distances are square-rooted so that the crowded famous places near the castle still stand apart. Read season against place: the summer views, for example, are mostly in the castle town and along the Sumida River, while autumn often heads out into the country.

The four sections follow the table of contents as given in the Japanese Wikipedia article on the Meisho Edo hyakkei. Works whose place is uncertain, put only in the rough area, have a hollow dot (approximate location).

All prints, by season

In the order of the original table of contents. Distances are in a straight line from the place shown to Edo Castle.

No.
Artist
Date
Collection
Licence
Image
View the image on Wikimedia Commons