Hiroshige Buzen Rakanji.jpg

Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川 広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.

Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series ''The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō'' and for his vertical-format landscape series ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo''. The subjects of his work were atypical of the ''ukiyo-e'' genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and other scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868). The popular series '' Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji'' by Hokusai was a strong influence on Hiroshige's choice of subject, though Hiroshige's approach was more poetic and ambient than Hokusai's bolder, more formal prints. Subtle use of color was essential in Hiroshige's prints, often printed with multiple impressions in the same area and with extensive use of '' bokashi'' (color gradation), both of which were rather labor-intensive techniques.

For scholars and collectors, Hiroshige's death marked the beginning of a rapid decline in the ''ukiyo-e'' genre, especially in the face of the westernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Hiroshige's work came to have a marked influence on western European painting towards the close of the 19th century as a part of the trend in Japonism. Western European artists, such as Manet and Monet, collected and closely studied Hiroshige's compositions. Vincent van Gogh even went so far as to paint copies of two of Hiroshige's prints from ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'': ''Plum Park in Kameido'' and ''Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake''

Early life and apprenticeship

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. 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.

Landscapes, flora, and fauna

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. 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 on pictures found in books and paintings.

The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō