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– A Special Exhibition Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Municipal Consolidation – From the Collection of the Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena: The Sixty-nine Stages of the Kiso Highway

Exhibit Period

April 15 (Thursday) - May 16 (Sunday), 2004

Exhibit Times

9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
(last admissions at 4:30 p.m.)

Museum closed

Mondays, and the day following a holiday (except when this falls on a Saturday or Sunday)

Admission Fee

Adults: 800yen High School, College Students: 500yen Elementary, Junior High School Students: 150yen (Discounts are available for groups of 20 or more)

Overview

In 2004, it will have been exactly 50 years since the former municipalities of Bato Town, Mumo Village, Oyamada Village and Ouchi Village were consolidated, and the newly-formed Bato Town was born. At this museum, we celebrate this special year by holding a special exhibition, “From the Collection of the Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena: The Sixty-nine Stages of the Kiso Highway.”
The Kiso Highway was established in approximately 1602, a road running through the Kiso mountain region, connecting Edo with Kyoto via Shinano Province. The official name designated by the shogunate was the “Nakasendo Highway,” but the common folk referred to it by various names, including “Kisoji Road” and “Kiso Highway.” Although it was more than 40 kilometers longer than the Tokaido Highway and had 16 more post stations, with comparatively fewer places of difficult terrain than Tokaido the Kiso Highway was used by more travelers.
“The Sixty-nine Stages of the Kiso Highway” is a collection of 70 works in all—the starting point of Nihonbashi and the 69 post towns of the Kiso Highway. In about 1835, Keisai Eisen (1791-1848) began the work, but afterwards Utagawa Hiroshige joined in, and in the end Eisen completed 24 of the drawings and Hiroshige completed 46 drawings. The depictions of the travelers'manners and customs—as well as the scenes at the post stations—are full of life, and this is known as one of Hiroshige's representative works.
There are certainly not many museums or collectors with the complete set of works, and the collection of “The Sixty-nine Stages of the Kiso Highway” at the Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena is one of the finest quality sets in the world. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to view the entire set.

Museum Talk

Presented by one of our curators
Saturday, April 17, 2004; Saturday, April 24, 2004;
Saturday, May 15, 2004; all talks begin at 1:30 p.m.

Lecture

“Enjoying the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Highway”

Mayumi Sugawara, curator, Hiroshige Museum of Art, Ena
Saturday, May 1, 2004; from 1:30 p.m.- 3:00 p.m.

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