Hiroshige8Puzzle

■What is Ukiyoe?
Ukiyoe is an art form which was very popular during the Edo period (17-19c) in Japan.
The word "Ukiyoe" means "a painting of this fleeting world",
and beautiful women, popular actors, and impressive landscapes are often depicted in Ukiyoe.

■Hiroshige Utagawa, a great Ukiyoe artist
Hiroshige Utagawa was one of the greatest Ukiyoe artists.
Hiroshige, in his early days, drew common Ukiyoe themes such as actors and women, but later he came to draw landscapes to distinguish himself.
Hiroshige's most famous work is "The fifty-three stations of the Tokaido", which was not only popular in Japan, but also had a great impact on Western artists, especially French Impressionists in the late 19th century.

■What is this app？
Here we have made an app for ardent art lovers.
We adapt Hiroshige's "The fifty-three stations of the Tokaido" into 8-puzzles.

8-puzzle is a numeric game in which you slide 8 numbered tiles, to get these tiles arranged in ascending order.
In this app, each 8 tiles is a divided piece of one picture, which is one of the Hiroshige's 55 works, and so you get these tiles arranged as you do in common 8-puzzle, then you will get a Hiroshige's Ukiyoe.

The theme of "The fifty-three stations of the Tokaido" is travel in Edo period.
In those days, people traveled from Edo (present Tokyo) to Kyoto(the ancient capital in Japan) walking along the route of the "Tokaido".

In this app, you start your travel from Nihonbashi (in Edo), where Tokaido route strats.
Everytime you have finished arranging a picture, you will reach the next station.
When you have completed 55 puzzles, you will get to Sanjo Ohashi (in Kyoto), where Tokaido route ends.

You can enjoy 55 puzzles, as well as appreciate a collection of Hiroshige's beautiful Ukiyoe.

Also for puzzle lovers who cannot be satisfied with easy puzzles, we recommend the challenging mode.
If you turn "Number" switch off, the number on each tile is not displayed.
You have to arrange 8 tiles without referring to numbers.
You will focus on the details of the pictures, which help you notice what you otherwise would overlook.

We hope you enjoy PuzzleDeHiroshige, and hopefully you will be more interested in Japanese culture and art.