Utagawa Hiroshige

Hiroshige worked between 1797 and 1858 across painter, ukiyo-e artist, xylographer, draftsperson and artist. The registers place that work in landscape painting and ukiyo-e. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Training under Utagawa Toyohiro and Ōoka Unpō is recorded. Utagawa Hirokage, Utagawa Shigekiyo and Shikō are recorded as having studied under Utagawa Hiroshige. The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is ukiyo-e and shunga. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape and ukiyo-e. Katsushika Hokusai is recorded as an influence. Places of work recorded in the authority are Edo and Kyoto. Positions recorded include dōshin. Works named in the authority record are One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Eight Views of Ōmi, Kōshū Nikki, The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō and Famous Views of the 60-odd Provinces. Work by Utagawa Hiroshige is recorded in the collections of Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museo del Prado, Art Institute of Chicago, Auckland Art Gallery and Finnish National Gallery.

• Name — Hiroshige • Birthplace — Edo, Japan • Birth Name — Andō Tokutarō • Died — 12 October 1858 • Place of death — Edo, Japan • Field — * Painting • Printing • Training — Toyohiro • Movement — Utagawa school • Works — * The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō • The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō • Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces • One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

• Illustration — Wind Blown Grass Across the Moon, by Hiroshige, probably around 1832 • Illustration — Hiroshige studied under Toyohiro of the Utagawa school of artists. Returning Sails at Tsukuda by Toyohiro, from Eight Views of Edo, between 1802 and 1829 Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Yayosu Quay section of the Yaesu area in Edo (modern Tokyo). He was of a samurai background, and is the great-grandson of Tanaka Tokuemon, who held a position of power under the Tsugaru clan in the northern province of Mutsu. Hiroshige's grandfather, Mitsuemon, was an archery instructor who worked under the name Sairyūken. Hiroshige's father, Gen'emon, was adopted into the family of Andō Jūemon, whom he succeeded as fire warden for the Yayosu Quay area. Hiroshige went through several name changes as a youth: Jūemon, Tokubē, and Tetsuzō. He had three sisters, one of whom died when he was three. His mother died in early 1809, and his father followed later in the year, but not before handing his fire warden duties to his twelve-year-old son. He was charged with prevention of fires at Edo Castle, a duty that left him much leisure time. Not long after his parents' deaths, perhaps at around fourteen, Hiroshige—then named Tokutarō— began painting. At around the age of ten, Hiroshige studied traditional Kanō-style painting under Okajima Rinsai, who also lived in the fire warden barracks; according to some sources, in 1806 the young Hiroshige produced an emaki handscroll as a tribute to the governor of Edo, commissioned by an ambassador from the Ryukyu Islands. He sought the tutelage of Toyokuni of the Utagawa school, but Toyokuni had too many pupils to make room for him. A librarian introduced him instead to Toyohiro of the same school. By 1812 Hiroshige was permitted to sign his works, which he did under the art name Hiroshige. He also studied the techniques of the well-established Kanō school, the nanga whose tradition began with the Chinese Southern School, and the realistic Shijō school, and likely the linear perspective techniques of Western art and uki-e. Hiroshige's apprentice work included book illustrations and single-sheet ukiyo-e prints of female beauties and kabuki actors in the Utagawa style, sometimes signing them Ichiyūsai or, from 1832, Ichiryūsai. In 1823, he passed his post as fire warden on to his son, though he still acted as an alternate. He declined an offer to succeed Toyohiro upon the master's death in 1828.

It was not until 1829–1830 that Hiroshige began to produce the landscapes he has come to be known for, such as the Eight Views of Ōmi series. He also created an increasing number of bird and flower prints about this time. About 1831, his Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital appeared, and seem to bear the influence of Hokusai, whose popular landscape series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji had recently seen publication. An invitation to join an official procession to Kyoto in 1832 gave Hiroshige the opportunity to travel along the Tōkaidō route that linked the two capitals. As a hikeishi-dōshin fire warden, Hiroshige was entitled to certain minor privileges reserved for low-ranking samurai, which is how he came to secure an invitation to join the procession. He sketched the scenery along the way, and when he returned to Edo he produced the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, which contains some of his best-known prints. Hiroshige built on the series' success by following it with others, such as the Illustrated Places of Naniwa (1834), Famous Places of Kyoto (1835), another Eight Views of Ōmi (1834). As he had never been west of Kyoto, Hiroshige-based his illustrations of Naniwa (modern Osaka) and Ōmi Province (modern Shiga Prefecture) on pictures found in books and paintings. • Illustration — Print 11: Hakone • Illustration — Print 16: Kanbara • Illustration — Print 46: Rain Shower at Shōno Hiroshige's first wife helped finance his trips to sketch travel locations, in one instance selling some of her clothing and ornamental combs. She died in October 1838, and Hiroshige remarried to Oyasu, sixteen years his junior, daughter of a farmer named Kaemon from Tōtōmi Province (modern Western Shizuoka prefecture). Around 1838 Hiroshige produced two series entitled Eight Views of the Edo Environs, each print accompanied by a humorous kyōka poem. The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō saw print between about 1835 and 1842, a joint production with Keisai Eisen, of which Hiroshige's share was forty-six of the seventy prints. The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō was issued jointly by Takenouchi and Iseya Rihei. Hiroshige produced 118 sheets for the One Hundred Famous Views of Edo over the last decade of his life, beginning about 1848. In One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Hiroshige frequently places large-scale objects, people and animals, or parts of them, in the foreground. This device, derived from Western art, was intended to add depth to the composition. • Illustration — Edo, print 30: The Plum Garden in Kameido • Illustration — Edo, print 63: Suidō Bridge and the Surugadai Quarter • Illustration — Thirty-six Views, print 3: Sukiyagashi in the Eastern Capital • Illustration — Thirty-six Views, print 27: Futami Bay in Ise Province • Illustration — View of the Whirlpools at Awa triptych, 1857, part of the series "Snow, Moon and Flowers"

• Illustration — View of Kagurazaka and Ushigome bridge to Edo Castle (牛込神楽坂の図), by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1840 In his declining years, Hiroshige still produced thousands of prints to meet the demand for his works, but few were as good as those of his early and middle periods. He never lived in financial comfort, even in old age. In no small part, his prolific output stemmed from the fact that he was poorly paid per series, although he was still capable of remarkable art when the conditions were right—his great One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景 Meisho Edo Hyakkei) was paid for up-front by a wealthy Buddhist priest in love with the daughter of the publisher, Uoya Eikichi (a former fishmonger). In 1856, Hiroshige "retired from the world", becoming a Buddhist monk; this was the year he began his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 (whether the epidemic killed him is unknown) and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa. Just before his death, he left a farewell poem: (The Western Land in this context refers to the strip of land by the Tōkaidō between Kyoto and Edo, but it does double duty as a reference to the paradise of the Amida Buddha). Despite his productivity and popularity, Hiroshige was not wealthy—his commissions were less than those of other in-demand artists, amounting to an income of about twice the wages of a day labourer. His will left instructions for the payment of his debts.

• Illustration — A rather dark printing of the view sometimes dubbed "Man on Horseback Crossing a Bridge". From the series The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō, this is View 28 and Station 27 at Nagakubo-shuku, depicting the Wada Bridge across the Yoda River. Hiroshige produced over 8,000 works. He largely confined himself in his early work to common ukiyo-e themes such as women (美人画 bijin-ga) and actors (役者絵 yakusha-e). Then, after the death of Toyohiro, Hiroshige made a dramatic turnabout, with the 1831 landscape series Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (東都名所 Tōto Meisho) which was critically acclaimed for its composition and colors. This set is generally distinguished from Hiroshige's many print sets depicting Edo by referring to it as Ichiyūsai Gakki, a title derived from the fact that he signed it as Ichiyūsai Hiroshige. With The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833–1834), his success was assured. These designs were drawn from Hiroshige's actual travels of the full distance of 490 km. They included details of date, location, and anecdotes of his fellow travelers, and were immensely popular. In fact, this series was so popular that he reissued it in three versions, one of which was made jointly with Kunisada. Hiroshige went on to produce more than 2000 different prints of Edo and post stations Tōkaidō, as well as series such as The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (1834–1842) and his own Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1852–1858). Of his estimated total of 5000 designs, these landscapes comprised the largest proportion of any genre. He dominated landscape printmaking with his unique brand of intimate, almost small-scale works compared against the older traditions of landscape painting descended from Chinese landscape painters such as Sesshu. The travel prints generally depict travelers along famous routes experiencing the special attractions of various stops along the way. They travel in the rain, in snow, and during all of the seasons. In 1856, working with the publisher Uoya Eikichi, he created a series of luxury edition prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition of mica to lend a unique iridescent effect, embossing, fabric printing, blind printing, and the use of glue printing (wherein ink is mixed with glue for a glittery effect). Hiroshige pioneered the use of the vertical format in landscape printing in his series Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (issued serially between 1856 and 1859) was immensely popular. The set was published posthumously and some prints had not been completed—he had created over 100 on his own, but two were added by Hiroshige II after his death.

• Illustration — Naruto Whirlpool, Awa Province, from Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces • Illustration — Moonlight View of Tsukuda with Lady on a Balcony • Illustration — Sumida River, the Wood of the Water god • Illustration — Moon over Ships Moored at Tsukuda Island from Eitai Bridge • Illustration — Evening on the Sumida river • Illustration — Enjoying the fireworks and the cool of the evening at Ryogoku bridge • Illustration — Moon Bridge in Meguro, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo • Illustration — The Sea at Satta, Suruga Province, from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji • Illustration — Kozuke Province, from Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces • Illustration — Horikiri Iris Garden (Horikiri no hanashōbu), from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo • Illustration — Fudo Falls, Oji, 1857, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo • Illustration — View from Massaki of Suijin Shrine, Uchigawa Inlet, and Sekiya, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo • Illustration — Yoroi Ferry, Koami-cho, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo • Illustration — Dragon in clouds • Illustration — Heavy rain on a pine tree, from Eight Views of Ōmi • Illustration — Fishing boats on a lake, from Eight Views of Ōmi • Illustration — Full moon over a mountain landscape, from Eight Views of Ōmi • Illustration — Sokokura, from Seven Hot Springs of Hakone • Illustration — View of a long bridge across a lake, from Eight Views of Ōmi • Illustration — A shrine among trees on a moor

Utagawa Hiroshige was born on 1 January 1797 in Edo. Hiroshige held the nationality of Japan. Hiroshige studied under Utagawa Toyohiro and Ōoka Unpō. Hiroshige worked as painter, ukiyo-e artist, xylographer and draftsperson, and the authority record catalogues a further 1 occupations under the same name, among them artist. Hiroshige was active from 1818. Hiroshige worked in Edo and Kyoto. The fields Hiroshige worked in include landscape painting and ukiyo-e. Hiroshige worked in Japanese. Hiroshige is placed by the collections within Utagawa school and Kasei culture. Hiroshige died on 12 October 1858 in Edo. Hiroshige is buried at Tōgaku-ji Temple.