Hiroshige. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Bibliotheca Universalis) (Multilingual Edition)

Many art books are beautiful to look at, as is this one. But few also engage your sense of touch, or provide special bindings suited to the subject matter - as this book does (see below). Bestow it on an art lover and it will not be returned for credit. Ando Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo, first edition, was published in 1859. There would be many subsequent editions. (The series actually contains 119 prints, but the “100” number was better suited for marketing purposes. Don’t want to get into those weeds here.) The collection was an immediate best seller, and today ranks with the artist’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido as his most familiar work. As with most Japanese prints of the era the idea for this series originated with a publisher, who may have been thinking of the “Illustrated Guide to Famous Views of Edo”, published about 20 years earlier. Regardless, Hiroshige delivered a masterpiece. Views sweep across the landscapes, waterscapes and cityscapes of Edo - from an eagle’s view high above frozen tundra to spectacular fireworks over the famed Ryogoku bridge, to merchant quarters dominated by a looming view of Mount Fuji. Hiroshige’s brilliant, inventive mind permeates every print. The thing about Edo era prints is that early editions are almost always far superior to those which followed. Once print best sellers proved their marketplace mettle, publishers were prone to cut corners. Maybe save time and money by not being so fussy about colors specified by the artist, or worked out by the original printer. Maybe don’t worry about repairing broken or worn out lines carved in blocks that should have been retired or patched up much earlier. Hey, by the 10th edition who’s to know? That’s hardly an issue here. As one measure of the care with which this book was designed, the authors elected to photograph a complete first edition - from the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo. Colors are exceptionally rich, and well saturated into the handmade paper’s plant fibers. The complete package consists of an inner volume encased in a removable hard cover, on which is imprinted Hiroshige’s splendid “Plum Orchard in Kamada”. For a wonderful, tactile sensation run your fingers lightly over the inner volume’s soft, silky cover. I also mentioned binding. In keeping with tradition the inner volume is stitched with thin silky cord. And the hard cover - really more of a casing than a cover - is secured by two traditional clasps. You or your giftee can spend many a pleasurable hour with Hiroshige’s magnificent achievement (as did the likes of Whistler and van Gogh). Highly recommended.

I bought this book mainly for the art, and considering the final price was just over $20.00 I couldn't resist buying this book. However, I want to clarify something about this book. It says, buried in the item description at the bottom, that the book comes in English, French, and German. I thought that meant that the book was available in 3 different languages, but when I got the book it turns out that sections of it are actually in English, French, and German. This means that the actual content of the book is repeated in various locations, and the book itself is quite thick. I just want you to be aware of this because although there are many beautiful pages with artwork, there are also lots of pages of text - so if you're thinking of giving this book to someone as a gift for the pictures you might want to find a different book that focuses mainly on the art and less on the history. Anyway - I'm super impressed with the book and am looking forward to purchasing more hardcover books on older Japanese art. I consider this book to be a great starting book if you're looking for reference material as an artist as well because the price isn't going to kill you and there are a lot of examples of how to draw different subjects. One thing I bought this book for was to learn how to draw trees in a Japanese style, and within 20 minutes of looking at the book I saw lots of different techniques used from drawing rough outlines of trees and putting line work in to represent leaves to actually drawing individual leaves. It's a great book for learning and I can't recommend it enough.

Good quality of the print, sturdy binding, has annotation in 3 languages. Great value for this price and would be a perfect gift for someone who enjoys Japanese art.

The presentation of this collection is just exquisite! The book itself is pretty large which allows the prints themselves to be showcased in all their glory (I included photo of mass market paperback next to the book for size comparison), and it’s a paperback within a hardcover case. The first pages of the book details the history of woodblock prints and Hiroshige’s work and even includes a map showing the locations of where each print was based. The book then gets into Hiroshige’s prints, each standing alone with a small description on the opposite page. Overall, a gorgeous book I would definitely recommend! The only problem I can see with the book is that if you were to store the book vertically on a shelf, the paperback portion might slip out the bottom.

The prints are beautiful and there's a lot of them. Each one has a page giving more information on the location and when it was done. The book itself is softcover but comes in a hard case that can be removed either by slipping out or undoing two clasps and opening it. The paper has a very nice feel to it. Great piece to have around and I do go back to it and look through some of the pages, or find a print I like a lot and read about it.

This is a beautiful book. I bought it to destroy it - i.e., cut out some pages to frame and put on the wall but now I am afraid to since it is so nice. Well almost afraid to - the pages are doubled over so I can slit at the fold and frame a print without taking another print with it. The commentary on the side is nice so I will get a double wide frame and put the commentary up there with the print. Some have commented they don't like the type setting in double column. I like it and think it is appropriate. Some figures seem a little soft around the edges but other prints are quite sharp so it may have been the prints that were available to photo-copy for the book were in various conditions.

excellent build & stunning art

YES, another sensational volume of a master Hiroshige series in Huge, lush Format

Excellent quality reproductions. Well laid out and highly informative. An excellent read.

Edición muy cuidada, papel premium, imágenes impecables y un color exquisito.

The book size is a tad small to do full justice to the artist, but Taschen's production values are impeccable otherwise. It's a treat to feast one's eyes on the gorgeous art.

Sehr schönes Buch mit tollen Bildern

Como es habitual en Taschen, cuidada presentación trilingüe (inglés, alemán, francés) tamaño pequeño, alrededor de 600 páginas. Quizás suene mal pero, puesto a sacarle algún defecto, encuentro que al hacer una edición como esta, deberían haber incluido también el español. A mí no me supone ningún problema porque me defiendo bien en estos idiomas, pero creo que los hispanohablantes somos un mercado mayor que el alemán y el francés juntos y sigo sin verlo adecuadamente representado en libros, discos, vídeos y demás artículos. Quizás sea por políticas de Amazon que no se ofrezcan más ediciones de Taschen en nuestro lenguaje, pero deberían planteárselo. Seriamente. Buen libro y buen regalo para quien lo reciba.