De 53 stations van de Tokaido en de Japanse Binnenzee 1920 - 1923

This book, "The 53 Stations of the Tokaido and the Japanese Inland Sea", was made by Mizushima Niou. Look at the cover and imagine the artist making it, carving into blocks, pressing them onto paper, one after the other to build the image in layers. I love the book's open page. There's a lone figure on the left, smoking a pipe, the smoke curling into the open air. Maybe Niou wanted to capture the essence of travel, of seeing, being alone with one's thoughts. I feel like the character is pensive, perhaps reflecting on the journey ahead or behind. On the right cover, the landscape unfolds in layers and planes. It's like Niou is saying that even the journey itself is a kind of layering, an accumulation of experiences and impressions. We see how one artist can echo and converse with another. Maybe Niou knew Hiroshige’s "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido." And so the conversation goes on.