Visions of the Tokaido Road - An Illustrated Talk with Nigel Caple

Nigel Caple is coming to Worthing Museum & Art Gallery on Thursday 29 April 2027 for an illustrated talk on the Tokaido Road, one of the most important routes of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868). The road linked Kyoto and Edo, which we now know as Tokyo, and for centuries it was the main artery between the two cities. Caple's talk looks at both its ancient and modern sides, so it's as much about the road's history as it is about how it's been seen over time.

Much of the talk is built around the artists who left visual records of the route. Two names in particular take centre stage: the printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige, whose woodblock series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido is one of the most famous depictions of the road, and Felice Beato, who took photographs along the route in the nineteenth century. Putting them together lets you see how the same landscape shifted from the stylised lines of a woodblock print to the starker detail of early photography.

Caple brings his own experience into it, too. He's walked the Tokaido himself, and the talk draws on a series of paintings he made from drawings on his journey, in locations very much like the ones Hiroshige would have travelled. It's a nice way of bridging the gap between the old records and a first-hand account.

The talk starts at 2:00pm and runs for 80 minutes. Tickets are from £10.75 plus a £0.75 transaction fee, and there's an age guidance of 16+.