<figure id="attachment_464524" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1672px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464524"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7eff8171"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/53247c048a3827bf934700047b652e7d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464524" class="wp-caption-text">“Kasumigaseki” (Chiyoda). In Hiroshige’s time, the slope between what is now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central Government Complex No. 2 and 3 buildings was called “Kasumigaseki.” Although the photo was actually taken on Shiomi-zaka, one street over, the atmosphere of the original artwork still remains today (from Revisiting Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”, same below).</figcaption></figure>
The revived “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, created by Utagawa Hiroshige, captures the changing landscape as Edo transitioned into Tokyo, richly depicting the atmosphere of the four seasons. Although titled “One Hundred Views,” the series ultimately expanded to 119 scenes plus one index after Hiroshige’s death, including works by his successor Hiroshige II, making it a comprehensive masterpiece of landscape ukiyo-e. It is also globally renowned and said to have influenced Western painters such as Vincent van Gogh.
The 119 scenes cover locations from central Edo to its outskirts, including places such as “Kōnodai” (present-day Ichikawa), “Inokashira Pond” (Mitaka), “Senzoku Pond” (Ota), and “Shin-Juku” (now Niijuku, Katsushika), depicting a wide variety of seasonal and time-of-day scenes.
In late March, floating photographer Kisenya published Revisiting Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”(Tetsujinsha), which overlays modern Tokyo landscapes onto Hiroshige’s works to express the connection between Edo’s past and present-day Tokyo. The project involved visiting all 119 locations, identifying them as precisely as possible, and compositing or editing contemporary photographs to match the original compositions as closely as possible.
Kisenya’s fascination with &#8220;One Hundred Famous Views of Edo&#8221; began in 2013, when he photographed wisteria flowers over the drum bridge at Kameido Tenjin Shrine. When he casually composited part of Hiroshige’s artwork onto the image, it unexpectedly gained attention on social media. This led him to deeper research into the series and a growing fascination with the works.
As he writes in the book’s introduction:
“Each time I visited various locations and continued photographing, I felt that Edo’s townscape and people’s daily lives were connected to present-day Tokyo. When I looked through the viewfinder, it felt as if I could see the people of Edo, and I naturally began to think of compositions to overlay onto the photographs.”
He began using the title floating photographer in 2017 after his first solo exhibition. In 2018, he started a serialized project on the website Nippon.com, and by 2022 he had completed the entire set of 119 scenes plus the English-language index.
Hiroshige’s style is characterized by bold compositions with extreme foreground and background contrasts, as well as bird’s-eye and elevated perspectives, making it extremely difficult to reproduce the same image even with modern photography. In addition, over the past 170 years, many landscapes have changed drastically — rivers and seas have been reclaimed, and highways now block once-visible views.
Even so, there remains a shared something that transcends time between the two works. For example, in “Nihonbashi Tōriitchō Ryakuzu,” a group of dancers holding large umbrellas appears almost seamlessly merged with modern women holding parasols in front of Coredo Nihonbashi in midsummer. In “Kasumigaseki,” even though the photo was actually taken on nearby Shiomi-zaka, the atmosp here feels the same.
The book offers a renewed sense that the everyday lives of Edo’s people are somehow still connected to us today.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The &quot;Meisho Edo Hyakkei&quot; as it is today"></div>
<figure id="attachment_464525" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1892px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464525"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bbcccbfd"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/b13119633c704fb10d5e86292e0d1ae2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464525" class="wp-caption-text">At the site of the former Shirakiya department store in Nihonbashi (Nihonbashi 1-chome, Chuo Ward), there is now Coredo Nihonbashi. It is said that Utagawa Hiroshige intentionally obscured people’s faces with umbrellas in this work to express the intense summer heat. Today, people walking with parasols evoke the atmosphere of that historical scene.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_464526" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1884px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464526"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="936c420c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/d65a47a381d735dcd86a2bae6bac629e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464526" class="wp-caption-text">A famous work also copied by Vincent van Gogh. “Ohashi” corresponds to today’s Shin-Ohashi Bridge (near Nihonbashi-Nakasu in Chuo Ward), while “Atake” referred to the area on the opposite bank where the shogunate’s naval facilities once stood. It is said that Hiroshige deliberately blurred military installations to avoid depicting them in detail.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<figure id="attachment_464527" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1880px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464527"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a7763727"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/f6ac2476ed2ff0f505b49975c39e6756.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464527" class="wp-caption-text">Another well-known scene from Bunkyo, near Hongo 1-chome: the view from Suidobashi over the Kanda River toward Surugadai, where Mt. Fuji is depicted. In reality, Mt. Fuji lies further to the left of the frame. Photographer Kisenya reportedly took over 400 shots just to capture the perfect moment of carp streamers fluttering in the wind.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_464528" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1871px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464528"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d320650a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/493b551a454490d9af89a9d0964162d8.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464528" class="wp-caption-text">In “Takanawa Ushimachi” (Takanawa 2-chome, Minato Ward), now near Takanawa Gateway Station area along National Route 15, the eastern side of the road once faced the sea. The composition, which uses circular motifs such as wheels and rainbows, was recreated by compositing a rainbow shot in a different location.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<figure id="attachment_464529" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1859px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464529"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0e2b1cad"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/830b1cd08cb798947e7f062913645e76.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464529" class="wp-caption-text">Kameido Tenjin Shrine is where Kisenya first began photographing ukiyo-style images. In his earlier work, he mistakenly photographed the female bridge instead of the male bridge depicted in the original artwork, and later revisited the site to correct it.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_464530" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1878px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464530"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2dbc0dcc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/72bf38edc645027478b239f886d602f7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464530" class="wp-caption-text">Another scene originally drawn from a bird’s-eye view stretching from near Sakuradamon to the Kojimachi area (present-day Chiyoda). Recreating the composition requires significant elevation, and because Hiroshige also stylized the scene for artistic effect, modern photographs must be digitally adjusted to match the mood.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_464531" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1863px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464531"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6c1e48a9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/242d7f0b58166a2d7861106934888405.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464531" class="wp-caption-text">A view from today’s Matsuzakaya Ueno store toward Ueno Park in Taito. The original “Ito Matsuzakaya” store burned down during the Ansei Edo earthquake, but it continued operations while providing relief food to victims and was highly praised. The “Ito Maru” logo is still used at the same location today.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_464745" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1058px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-464745"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b28ddc15"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/04/65982ea83d6db0fa5d5b45bbc8fd9ca7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-464745" class="wp-caption-text">This book contains 119 reconstructed scenes created over nine years by Kisenya, compiled in Revisiting Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (Kisenya / Tetsujinsha).</figcaption></figure>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-start"></div>
<a href="https://amzn.to/4cmMbFZ">Going to See the Present-Day Locations of Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (written by Kisenya / Tetsujinsha)</a>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-end"></div>

 A photographer who photographed the "present" of Hiroshige Utagawa's masterpiece Ukiyoe, "Meisho Edo hyakkei" (One hundred Famous Views of Edo), which depicts the Edo period at the end of the Edo period, has published his work. In his work, the photographer captured something in the Tokyo landscape that has remained unchanged over the past 170 years.

Tokyo Then and Now Blur Together in Hiroshige-Inspired Photo Project

Access Ranking