The MAO Museum of Oriental Art in Turin is dedicating a new exhibition to one of the absolute masterpieces of nineteenth-century Japanese art: "Paesaggi da sogno / Dreamscapes," scheduled from July 24 to November 29.
The exhibition brings together a selection of 36 prints from the series "The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō" by Utagawa Hiroshige, owned by UniCredit, and takes visitors on a journey of discovery through Edo-period Japan via landscapes, travellers, and atmospheres suspended between reality and imagination.
Curated by Laura Vigo and Claudia Ramasso, and produced in collaboration with the Musei Reali di Torino, the exhibition is the second stage of a journey that began at the MAO in 2025 and offers an immersive narrative of travel culture between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Alongside Hiroshige's prints, a Japanese lacquered wooden saddle decorated in gold and the photographic album Views of Japan by Felice Beato, from the Musei Reali collections, will be on display to bear witness to the evolution of the imagery associated with journeys and the discovery of the country.
First produced in 1833 by the publisher Hōeidō, the Tōkaidō series enjoyed extraordinary success: over 15,000 copies sold and a popular reach that made it a true bestseller of its era. The prints, purchasable for the price of a simple meal, were not conceived as museum pieces but as editorial products intended for a wide audience.
Hiroshige transformed the 490-kilometre route between Edo and Kyoto into a visual narrative capable of combining landscape, everyday life, and poetic suggestion, anticipating in certain respects a narrative language akin to that of the cinematic storyboard.
Alongside the exhibition, the museum is also presenting two pairs of recently restored Japanese folding screens: one dedicated to views of Kyoto (Rakuchū rakugai zu) and one to the battles of Ichinotani and Yashima from the Genpei War. These works set two worlds in contrast: that of the samurai elite and the more popular, dynamic world depicted in Hiroshige's prints. Admission to the exhibition is included in the MAO's permanent collections ticket.
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