Utagawa Hiroshige
1797 – 12 October 1858
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of the woodblock landscape tradition. His travel print series, above all The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, were hugely popular in Japan and later exerted a strong influence on European artists including Van Gogh and Monet.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Utagawa Hiroshige.
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Life events
Hiroshige was born Andō Tokutarō in Edo, the son of a samurai who served as a fire warden of the shogunate.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing the deaths of his parents, the young Hiroshige inherited his father's hereditary position as a fire warden of Edo Castle, a post that left time for art.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHiroshige was accepted as a pupil of the ukiyo-e master Utagawa Toyohiro and within a year received the artist name Utagawa Hiroshige.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAfter early work on actor and beauty prints, Hiroshige established himself in the landscape genre with print series depicting famous sites of Edo.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHiroshige journeyed along the Tōkaidō, the great coastal highway linking Edo and Kyoto, gathering the sketches that inspired his most famous series.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHiroshige's series of prints depicting the post stations of the Tōkaidō road became one of the best-selling works in ukiyo-e history and made him famous.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWith Keisai Eisen, Hiroshige produced a major series depicting the inland Kiso Kaidō route between Edo and Kyoto.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn his final years Hiroshige withdrew from the world by taking Buddhist vows, while continuing to design prints.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHiroshige's late masterpiece, a series of over a hundred vertical-format views of Edo, was completed around the time of his death and later copied by Vincent van Gogh.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHiroshige died in Edo at the age of 61, probably of cholera during the great epidemic of 1858, and was buried at a Zen temple in Asakusa.
Source: en.wikipedia.org