Public Memories: Producing Edo in Kitao Masayoshi’s Landscape Prints

During the latter portion of the Edo period (1615-1868), travel and tourism became serious business in the urban centers of Japan. An increasing number of people took to newly constructed highways for both business and pleasure. The destination for many was the new metropolis of Edo (now known as Tokyo). As the shogun's seat of power, it played host to a wide range of visitors, its reputation as an exciting consumer playground reaching far and wide.

In Edo the vibrant print publishing industry developed landscape images for popular consumption. Single-sheet prints and illustrated guidebooks captured the landscape in new ways, promoting famous sites of urban pleasure. For those traveling from afar, these works could become souvenirs, acting as aids to memory long after the trip’s end. However, unlike paintings that were created to the specifications of an individual patron, these printed works were produced for a general public.

This paper explores the ways in which mass-produced landscape prints transformed the personal experience of the city by examining printed works by the artist Kitao Masayoshi (also known as Kuwagata Keisai, 1764-1824). Masayoshi and his publishers produced novel landscapes of the urban spectacle that was Edo; from panoramic views to guidebook illustrations. By probing these materials, this paper assesses how printed images both produced memories of the city for the consumer and in turn remade their experience of the landscape. Instead of simply reflecting the city’s spaces, these works illustrate how the Edo print industry’s images could create places.