Archive of The Mendocino Heritage Artists

William Zacha

Tokaido Journey Boxed Set

In 1985, William Zacha created a limited edition of 41 elegant folios, clothbound, unfolding presentation boxes, signed and numbered, each holding a complete set of the 55 Tokaido Journey serigraphs, providing access to all the original Tokaido Journey serigraphs without requiring museum-size wall space. Taken together, the serigraphs are Zacha’s masterwork, his late 20th century impressions of the traditional stations of Japan’s Tokaido Road, including the road’s endpoints, Tokyo and Kyoto.

Each boxed set comes with a complementary copy of Zacha’s book Tokaido Journey, a companion to the series, fully illustrated, with a page for each of the serigraphs and its story, in both Japanese and English.

The few remaining Tokaido Journey folio boxed sets are available through the Mendocino Art Center, as are individual Tokaido Journey serigraphs (signed and numbered limited editions), and Tokaido Journey, the book. For more information, visit the Mendocino Art Center or contact Mendocino Art Center Gallery Manager Joey Nicolaides (707-937-5818).

To examine a display copy of the boxed set, please make an appointment with Joey Nicolaides (707-937-5818).

Read William Zacha’s introduction to the history of the Tokaido Road and his personal Tokaido Journey.

The Tokaido Journey Box:

**William Zacha’s Tokaido Journey boxed set, open to title page, with an endpaper list of the Stages of the Tokaido Highway. Limited edition (1985).**

The 53 Stages of the Tokaido Highway: endpaper, boxed set of William Zacha’s 55 Tokaido Journey serigraphs (showing the box fasteners). Limited edition (1985). NOTE: There are 53 traditional stages between Tokyo (formerly Edo) and Kyoto; however there are 55 serigraphs in Zacha’s Tokaido Journey, because the artist has included the endpoints of the Tokaido Road, Tokyo and Kyoto, as essential to the series.

**Route of the Old Tokaido Road, overleaf, from the boxed set of 55 Tokaido Journey serigraphs by William Zacha. Limited edition (1985).**

**The dark navy clothbound Tokaido Journey folio** box unfolded ~ on the left, a map showing each station on the Old Tokaido Road, on the right, a list of the stages of the Tokaido Highway, and in the center, the stacked serigraphs of William Zacha’s 55 stations, with Tokaido Journey 01. Nihonbashi (Tokyo) on top. Limited edition (1985).

Zacha’s Tokaido Journey begins in Tokyo at Nihonbashi:
“All distances in Japan are measured from a marker at the northern end of the Nihonbashi (Bridge of Japan). Cross the bridge over the Sumida river and then continue down the Ginza, and you’ll end up in Kyoto. The great elevated freeway that is the current Tokaido, wends its way across Tokyo above the river, and here it overpasses the Nihonbashi. That is the subject of the first serigraph in my Tokaido Journey.” ~ William Zacha in The Tokaido Journey (1985)

**Nihonbashi, Tokaido Journey 01, serigraph by William Zacha**

LINKS
What is a Serigraph?
William Zacha’s Tokaido Journey Serigraphs
Tokaido Journey Book
Tokaido Journey Boxed Set
Artwork of William Zacha
William Zacha: a Life Well Lived
The Mendocino Heritage Artists
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