Valentina Giacomini
Photographer
All Roads
Lead
to
Edo
Tōkaidō (東海道), Eastern Sea Route, was the main road in Japan during the Edo or Tokugawa period (1603-1868) which, running alongside the Pacific Ocean, connected the cultural imperial capital of Kyōto with the political economic center
of Edo (modern-day Tōkyō), the seat of the Shogun. Along this road there were fifty-three post stations and, at regular intervals, checkpoints to control the passengers and goods.
An invitation to join an official procession to Kyōto in 1832 gave the painter Utagawa Hiroshige, the opportunity to travel along the Tōkaidō and sketched the scenery along the way. He later produced "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō," which includes some of his most well-known prints.Hiroshige, who is recognised as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, is also considered to be one of the greatest Japanese landscape artists.
All Roads Lead to Edo came to life thanks to the strong impact that “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō” had on me.
During my trips following the Tōkaidō stations from Tōkyō to Kyōto, freely drawing inspiration by Hiroshige's paintings, I tried to breathe new life into the atmosphere of the original prints through my own photographic vision.
My project does not wish to draw a comparison between “now” and “then”, nor to merely document the current state of the Tōkaidō, but it was rather conceived with the intent of sharing the emotions and feelings that these places can inspire.