Utagawa Hiroshige[a] (歌川 広重) orAndō Hiroshige[b] (安藤 広重), bornAndō Tokutarō (安藤 徳太郎; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japaneseukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape seriesThe Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and for his vertical-format landscape seriesOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The subjects of his work were atypical of theukiyo-e genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and other scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan'sEdo period (1603–1868). The popular seriesThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji byHokusai 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 ofbokashi (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 theukiyo-e genre, especially in the face of the westernization that followed theMeiji 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 inJaponism. Western European artists, such asManet andMonet, collected and closely studied Hiroshige's compositions:Vincent van Gogh, for instance,painted copies of some Hiroshige prints.
Wind Blown Grass Across the Moon – by HiroshigeHiroshige studied underToyohiro of theUtagawa school of artists. Returning Sails at Tsukuda, fromEight Views of Edo, early-19th century
Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Yayosu Quay section of theYaesu area inEdo (modernTokyo).[4] He was of asamurai background,[4] and is the great-grandson of Tanaka Tokuemon, who held a position of power under theTsugaru clan in the northern province ofMutsu. Hiroshige's grandfather, Mitsuemon, was an archery instructor who worked under the name Sairyūken. Hiroshige's father, Gen'emon, wasadopted into the family of Andō Jūemon, whom he succeeded asfire warden for the Yayosu Quay area.[4]
Hiroshige went through several name changes as a youth: Jūemon, Tokubē, and Tetsuzō.[4] 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.[5] He was charged with prevention of fires atEdo Castle, a duty that left him much leisure time.[6]
Not long after his parents' deaths, perhaps at around fourteen, Hiroshige—then named Tokutarō— began painting.[5][7] He sought the tutelage ofToyokuni of theUtagawa school, but Toyokuni had too many pupils to make room for him.[6] A librarian introduced him instead toToyohiro of the same school.[8] By 1812 Hiroshige was permitted to sign his works, which he did under theart name Hiroshige.[5] He also studied the techniques of the well-establishedKanō school, thenanga whose tradition began with the ChineseSouthern School, and the realisticShijō school, and likely thelinear perspective techniques of Western art anduki-e.[9]
Hiroshige's apprentice work included book illustrations and single-sheetukiyo-e prints of female beauties andkabuki actors in the Utagawa style, sometimes signing them Ichiyūsai[10] or, from 1832, Ichiryūsai.[11] In 1823, he passed his post as fire warden on to his son,[12] though he still acted as an alternate.[c] He declined an offer to succeed Toyohiro upon the master's death in 1828.[6]
It was not until 1829–1830 that Hiroshige began to produce the landscapes he has come to be known for, such as theEight Views of Ōmi series.[13] He also created an increasing number of bird and flower prints about this time.[11] About 1831, hisTen Famous Places in the Eastern Capital appeared, and seem to bear the influence ofHokusai, whose popular landscape seriesThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji had recently seen publication.[14]
An invitation to join an official procession to Kyoto in 1832 gave Hiroshige the opportunity to travel along theTōkaidō route that linked the two capitals. He sketched the scenery along the way, and when he returned to Edo he produced the seriesThe Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, which contains some of his best-known prints.[14] Hiroshige built on the series' success by following it with others, such as theIllustrated Places of Naniwa (1834),Famous Places of Kyoto (1835), anotherEight Views of Ōmi (1834). As he had never been west of Kyoto, Hiroshige-based his illustrations of Naniwa (modernOsaka) andŌmi Province (modern Shiga Prefecture) on pictures found in books and paintings.[15]
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,[d] sixteen years his junior, daughter of a farmer named Kaemon fromTōtōmi Province (modern Western Shizuoka prefecture).[16]
Around 1838 Hiroshige produced two series entitledEight Views of the Edo Environs, each print accompanied by a humorouskyōka poem.The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō saw print between about 1835 and 1842, a joint production withKeisai Eisen, of which Hiroshige's share was forty-six of the seventy prints.[17]The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō was issued jointly by Takenouchi and Iseya Rihei.[18] Hiroshige produced 118 sheets for theOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo[19] over the last decade of his life, beginning about 1848.[20] InOne 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.[18]
Hiroshige II was a young print artist, Chinpei Suzuki, who married Hiroshige's daughter, Otatsu. He was given the artist name of "Shigenobu". Hiroshige intended to make Shigenobu his heir in all matters, and Shigenobu adopted the name "Hiroshige" after his master's death in 1858, and thus today is known as Hiroshige II. However, the marriage to Otatsu was troubled and in 1865 they separated. Otatsu was remarried to another former pupil of Hiroshige, Shigemasa, who appropriated the name of the lineage and today is known asHiroshige III. Both Hiroshige II and Hiroshige III worked in a distinctive style based on that of Hiroshige, but neither achieved the level of success and recognition accorded to their master. Other students of Hiroshige I includeUtagawa Shigemaru,Utagawa Shigekiyo, andUtagawa Hirokage.
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 greatOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景Meisho Edo Hyakkei) was paid for up-front by a wealthyBuddhist 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 hisOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo. He died aged 62 during the great Edocholera epidemic of 1858 (whether the epidemic killed him is unknown) and was buried in aZen Buddhist temple inAsakusa.[7] Just before his death, he left a farewell poem:
東路に 筆を残して 旅の空 西のみくにの 名所を見む
I leave my brush in the East, And set forth on my journey. I shall see the famous places in the Western Land.
(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 theAmida 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.[21]
A rather dark printing of the view sometimes dubbed "Man on Horseback Crossing a Bridge". From the seriesThe Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō, this is View 28 and Station 27 atNagakubo-shuku, depicting the Wada Bridge across the Yoda River.[22]
Hiroshige produced over 8,000 works.[23] He largely confined himself in his early work to commonukiyo-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 seriesFamous 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 asIchiyūsai Gakki, a title derived from the fact that he signed it as Ichiyūsai Hiroshige. WithThe Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833–1834), his success was assured.[19] These designs were drawn from Hiroshige's actual travels of the full distance of 490 kilometers (300 mi). 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.[24] Hiroshige went on to produce more than 2000 different prints of Edo andpost stations Tōkaidō, as well as series such asThe Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō (1834–1842) and his ownThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1852–1858).[19] 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 asSesshu. 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 publisherUoya Eikichi, he created a series of luxury edition prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition ofmica 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 seriesFamous 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.
Hiroshige was a member of theUtagawa school, along withKunisada andKuniyoshi. The Utagawa school comprised dozens of artists, and stood at the forefront of 19th century woodblock prints. Particularly noteworthy for their actor and historical prints, members of the Utagawa school were nonetheless well-versed in all of the popular genres.
During Hiroshige's time, the print industry was booming, and the consumer audience for prints was growing rapidly. Prior to this time, most print series had been issued in small sets, such as ten or twelve designs per series. Increasingly large series were produced to meet demand, and this trend can be seen in Hiroshige's work, such asThe Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō andOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
In terms of style, Hiroshige is especially noted for using unusual vantage points, seasonal allusions, and striking colors. In particular, he worked extensively within the realm ofmeisho-e (名所絵) pictures of famous places. During the Edo period, tourism was also booming, leading to increased popular interest in travel. Travel guides abounded, and towns appeared along routes such as the Tōkaidō, a road that connected Edo with Kyoto. In the midst of this burgeoning travel culture, Hiroshige drew upon his own travels, as well as tales of others' adventures, for inspiration in creating his landscapes. For example, inThe Fifty-three Stations on the Tōkaidō (1833), he illustrates anecdotes fromTravels on the Eastern Seaboard (東海道中膝栗毛Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, 1802–1809) byJippensha Ikku, a comedy describing the adventures of two bumbling travelers as they make their way along the same road.
Hiroshige'sThe Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833–1834) andOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–1858) greatly influencedFrenchImpressionists such asMonet.Vincent van Gogh copied two of theOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo which were among his collection of ukiyo-e prints. Hiroshige's style also influenced theMir iskusstva, a 20th-centuryRussian art movement in whichIvan Bilibin andMstislav Dobuzhinsky were major artists. Dobuzhinsky confessed of Hiroshige's influence "I liked to choose a viewpoint of my own so that the composition would be striking, unusual; in that, I had the constant example of Hiroshige before my eyes".[25]Cézanne andWhistler were also amongst those under Hiroshige's influence.[26] Hiroshige was regarded by Louis Gonse, director of the influentialGazette des Beaux-Arts and author of the two volumeL'Art Japonais in 1883, as the greatest painter of landscapes of the 19th century.[27]
^Hiroshige's resignation has led to conjecture: nominally, he passed the position to his son Nakajirō, but it may have been that Nakajirō was actually the son of his adoptive grandfather. Hiroshige, as adopted heir, may have been made to give up the position to the purported legitimate heir.[6]
^When Hiroshige and Oyasu married is not known.[16]
Friese, Gordon.Keisai Eisen - Utugawa Hiroshige. Die 69 Stationen des Kisokaidô. Germany, Unna 2008.ISBN978-3-9809261-3-3
Holme, Bryan (Introduction) (1980).Hiroshige: A Shoal of Fishes (First ed.). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art / Viking Studio Book.ISBN978-0670372621.
Kafū, Nagai, Kyoko Selden, and Alisa Freedman. "Ukiyo-e Landscapes and Edo Scenic Places(1914)".Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 24 (2012): 210–232.
McManamon, Sean P. "Japanese Woodblock Prints as a Lens and a Mirror for Modernity".History Teacher 49, no. 3 (2016): 443–464.
Neuer, Toni, Herbert Libertson; Susugu Yoshida; W. H. Smith.Ukiyo-e: 250 years of Japanese Art. 1979.ISBN0-8317-9041-5
Smith, Henry D. II; Poster, G. Amy; Lehman, L. Arnold.Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. George Braziller, 1986. Paperback:ISBN0-87273-141-3; hardcover:ISBN0-8076-1143-3
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