This is Nancy Gaffield's libretto, based on her 2011 poetry collection of the same name, for Nicola LeFanu's chamber opera (2014). In 1832 the young Hiroshige sets out on Japan's great Eastern Sea Road, the Tokaido, linking Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. The paintings he creates along the way reveal the secrets of a hidden country. As the young artist, Hiro savours all his adventures-not least the amorous ones-and his paintings bring to life everyone he meets: old men and beautiful women, samurai and geisha, pilgrims, porters and passers-by. Hiroshige in old age is present in the opera too,...