Shinagawa Sunrise from the series Fifty-three Stations on the Tokaido Road

In 1832, Utagawa Hiroshige received an invitation to join an official procession to deliver gifts from his hometown, Edo, to the emperor in Kyoto. Traveling along the Tōkaidō route that linked the two capitals, Hiroshige sketched every village along the way. When Hiroshige returned home, he completed a fifty five print series commemorating his journey called Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road, which contains some of his best-known prints. In the print Shinagawa Sunrise, a seaside town is illustrated, with ships sitting on the calm blue water, and townspeople walking the road along shore-side shops. The white illumination that sits on the water makes it difficult to distinguish where the sea ends and the sky begins.