Utagawa Hiroshige was one of the last great ukiyo-e artists. “Ukiyo” is a Japanese word that means “floating world.” In art, it refers to the fleeting beauty of landscapes, theatre, and stories from history.

Hiroshige was born in Japan in 1797. His name then was Ando Hiroshige. His father was a shogun, a commander of thirty firefighting samurai. Hiroshige lived with his family in the samurai barracks and he was tutored in art by one of the firefighters.

Hiroshige decided to become an artist in 1832 when he saw the prints of another famous ukiyo-e artist, Hokusai. From then until Hokusai died, the two artists competed for the same costumers.

Hiroshige also became a firefighting shogun. There were not a lot fires though. So, he had plenty of time to draw and paint.

In Japan though, working artists needed licenses. Hiroshige had to become an
apprentice before he could be a professional artist. He was rejected several times
before Utagawa Toyohiro accepted him as an apprentice. After one year as his apprentice, Toyohiro gave Ando his artist name “Utagawa.” Utagawa Hiroshige supported himself by painting fans and small trinkets. He published his first original prints six years later. That same year, he fought a big fire in Ogawa-nichi and was celebrated as a hero.

Hiroshige became famous in 1831 when he published a series of prints called
Famous Places in the Eastern Capital. Thanks to his work as a fire-fighter, he was also invited to become an advisor to the Imperial Court. His walk to court passed the sea shore, a lake, and a snowy mountain range. He documented the journey in his most successful series of prints, The Fifty Three Stations of Tokaido.

Even as he got older, Hiroshige’s artwork was very popular. He created thousands of prints to meet the demand. His work wasn’t always good but he could make remarkable art when everything was just right. In 1856, he “retired from the world” to become a Buddhist monk. That same year, he began work on his masterpiece, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Just before his death, he left a poem:

“I leave my brush in the East
And set forth on my journey.
I shall see the famous places in the Western Land.”

Portrait by yours truly