Sites of the Eastern Capital at a Glance (Tōto shōkei ichiran), facsimile version by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Sites of the Eastern Capital at a Glance is a Japanese woodblock-printed guidebook of Edo-period views, reproduced here as a facsimile by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, made for travellers and readers curious about the sights of Edo. Its double-page spreads show shrine precincts, crowded pilgrimage grounds, and pleasure quarters in flat, bright colour with calligraphic captions. A designer might take its layered compositions, where rooftops, trees and tiny crowds recede in diagonal bands, and its stylised figures in patterned kimono.
