21 Facts About Utagawa Hiroshige

R evered as the last great artist of the ukiyo-e tradition, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) is a printmaker renowned for his poetic landscapes and evocative depictions of everyday life in Edo-period Japan. Among his best-known woodblock prints are the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. His legacy had profound influence on the Impressionists, and in contemporary genres, his revolutionary use of perspective and cropping may even have foreshadowed animation styles such as those seen in the works of the widely acclaimed Studio Ghibli animator Hayao Miyazaki.

Read on below for 21 facts about Hiroshige’s life and work.

1.        Hiroshige was a member of the samurai class

Hiroshige was born Andō Tokutarō in 1797 in Edo (present-day Tokyo) and was the only son of a low-ranking samurai family. For generations the Andō family worked for the Tokugawa shōgunate as a designated fire warden (jōbikeshi-dōshin) in the Yayosu (or Yaesu) fire brigade east of Edo Castle. The position was hereditary, passed down among generations of the family and had close ties to the security and safety of the shōgun.

2.        Hiroshige’s childhood was marked by tragedy

Hiroshige experienced many family tragedies in his early years. He had three sisters, the eldest of whom passed away when Hiroshige was just three years old. By the age of 12, Hiroshige had lost both his parents and inherited his father’s role as the fire warden – his mother died in 1809 when Hiroshige was just 11, while his father passed away only several months later.

3.        Hirsoshige was a fireman before he was an artist

Inheriting the role from his father, Hiroshige worked for some time as the fire warden of Edo castle. The job provided sufficient income to survive, as well as plenty of leisure time to pursue other interests.

4.        Hiroshige married twice

Hiroshige married Okabe Yuaemon, the daughter of a fireman, in 1821, and their first son, Nakajirō, was born the same year. Following the passing of his wife in 1838, Hiroshige married a second time, to Oyasu, a farmer’s daughter, who was about 16 years younger than him.

5.        Hiroshige’s principal student was also his son-in-law

Hiroshige's principal student Chinpei Suzuki married his daughter Otatsu and took the moniker Shigenobu until the death of Hiroshige in 1858, after which he took his master’s name. To separate the two, Suzuki is conventionally known as Hiroshige II. Following the death of his father-in-law, Hiroshige II posthumously completed Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The marriage would not last, however, and after Otatsu divorced Suzuki, she would go on to marry another one of her father’s pupils, Gotō Torakichi, who took on the name Hiroshige III.

6.        Hiroshige experienced rejection before he was accepted as a student of the Utagawa school

Hiroshige demonstrated an early aptitude for art and began painting soon after his parents’ deaths. He was named Tokutarō at the time. In around 1811, he sought to train under two prominent ukiyo-e artists, Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769–1825) and Utagawa Toyohiro (1773–1829), though both rejected him. With perseverance, Hiroshige applied again, and this time Toyohiro relented and granted Hiroshige a place in his studio. Hiroshige showed talent, and after only one year as Toyohiro’s apprentice, was granted his artist name Hiroshige – a sign of recognition by the master.

7.        Hiroshige created around 8,000 works in his lifetime

Hiroshige was exceptionally prolific throughout his life and is thought to have produced some 8,000 works. His earliest prints follow the tradition of ukiyo-e themes of portraying women and kabuki actors in Edo’s pleasure districts. By the early 1830s, Hiroshige began focusing his attention on landscapes depicting the beautiful changing seasons of Edo and his travels around Japan.

8.        Hiroshige’s magnum opus is The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō

In 1832, Hiroshige passed on his duties as fire warden to his son, Nakajirō. That same year, he was invited to join an official procession of the Tōkaidō, the imperial road between Edo, Tokugawa’s military base, and Kyoto, the imperial capital. The path was one of Japan’s major pilgrimage routes, dotted with temples and shrines set against scenic landscapes. The procession stopped at every station to rest for the night, which provided Hiroshige the opportunity to meet numerous merchants and pilgrims. Hiroshige sketched every encounter, inspired by their tales and the picturesque landscapes. Once home, he began working on the first prints from this series. The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō was an immediate success, quickly becoming some of his best-selling works and establishing Hiroshige as the most successful printmaker of his time.

9.        Hiroshige depicted the Tōkaidō in more than 20 different later print series

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō is widely considered his most defining work, nonetheless, the Tōkaidō was so inspirational to Hiroshige that he would return time and time again to it as subject matter. Hiroshige devoted more than 20 other print series to the Tōkaidō, which some experts have estimated to be around 700 prints.

10.  Hiroshige was inspired by Hokusai

Hiroshige is believed to have encountered the works of Katsushika Hokusai in around the 1810s to early 1820s when Hiroshige was still a young apprentice under Toyohiro. At this time, Hokusai’s prints were widely circulating in Edo. Hokusai’s most famous series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, published between 1830 to 1832, is thought to have left an indelible influence on Hiroshige, inspiring the artist to explore landscapes in his own work, later leading to his celebrated series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, as well as Hiroshige's own series on the same subject matter, also titledThirty-six Views of Mount Fuji .

11.  Hiroshige’s first landscapes were published in around 1825

Hiroshige published his first series of landscapes, Famous Places in the Eastern Capital in around 1825. The series comprised of ten prints and adopted Western conventions Hiroshige was interested in resulting in a bold new hybrid style. This first series already demonstrated Hiroshige’s poetic touch and revealed his fondness for the beauty of the changing seasons. In the early 1830s, he published another series by the same name which showed significant advancement and became known as his first major series.

12.  Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is still one of the most influential Japanese artworks today

Aside from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, his later series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is also ranked among the top of Hiroshige’s most important works. Hiroshige began the series in 1856, though unfortunately he died before he could finish the collection comprising 119 prints. One Hundred Famous Views of Edo was completed posthumously by his son-in-law and successor, Hiroshige II. The series is also notable for adopting a vertical format pioneered by Hiroshige in his preceding series, Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces, marking a departure from the conventional horizontal format of the time. Hugely popular when it was published, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo continues to be some of the most sought-after woodblock prints on the market together.

13.  Hiroshige was a master of bokashi

Hiroshige achieved the saturated colour gradients of the skies in his prints for which he is greatly admired by mastering the ukiyo-e technique bokashi. The technique involves carefully using a brush to apply ink in multiple hues to different sections of a moistened printing block, allowing the ink to bleed across the wet area, leaving a soft gradation when printed.

14.  Hiroshige portrayed scenes of Edo’s day-to-day life

Hiroshige sought inspiration from the everyday experience of life in Edo, not just the typical subjects of the floating world. He rendered images of men and women working in urban environments, creating scenes of day-to-day life with captivating detail. These prints appealed to the masses at the time because they were relatable, while today, they give us a visual chronicle of Japan’s bygone days.

15.  Hiroshige’s prints of nature were also incredibly popular

Hiroshige also created delightful nature prints that found immense popularity. Many of these prints have a tall, narrow format recalling the tanzaku – a type of paper traditionally used in Japan to record poems and wishes. Between the years around 1832 to 1835, Hiroshige released 22 large tanzaku (ō-tanzaku) nature prints designed for publisher Wakasaya Yoichi (Jakurindō), and 40 medium tanzaku (chū-tanzaku) prints for publisher Kawaguchiya Shōzō (Shōeidō).

16.  Hiroshige produced the most uchiwa among artists of his time

It is believed among the artists of his time, Hiroshige designed the most uchiwa – a type of hand-held printed fan popular during Japan’s warmer months from the late 1700s until the end of the Edo period. Although the conclusive number varies, scholars estimate Hiroshige created some 600 uchiwa over the course of about 20 years. Many are known only as unique examples.

17.  Hiroshige lived a life of poverty despite all his success

Despite achieving commercial success in his lifetime, Hiroshige was constantly struggling to make ends meet and reportedly still had many debts at the time of his death. It is thought that one reason for the disparity between his popularity and his financial misgivings was simply because he was too poorly paid for his work.

18.  Hiroshige became a Buddhist monk

In 1856, just as Hiroshige approached the age of 60, he chose to “retire from the world” and became a Buddhist monk. He passed away just two years later during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple, though it remains speculative if the disease was the cause of death.

19.  Hiroshige’s prints helped shape the course of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Although Hiroshige’s prints were primarily made while Japan’s longstanding isolation policy was still in force, just like the works of Hokusai and Utamaro, the prints travelled across the world and became popular amongst the Impressionists, including Claude Monet and Édouard Manet. Hiroshige’s prints helped popularize Japanese art around the world during a time when Europe was fascinated by the country. Some art historians have also noted Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne was also well acquainted with Hiroshige’s prints and have drawn similarities between Hiroshige’s The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō and Cézanne’s approach to perspective.

20.  Hiroshige inspired Vincent van Gogh’s Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)

Of the Post-Impressionists with a great fascination for Japan, Vincent van Gogh was perhaps the most notable. Van Gogh collected many Japanese prints, including several by Hiroshige. While van Gogh’s paintings such as the group of work Almond Blossoms (1888-1890) have been thought to owe their style and subject to Hiroshige, the artist’s Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) (1887) was indisputably created in tribute to Hiroshige’s Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake.

21.  Hiroshige’s works have been cited as influential by Studio Ghibli animator Hayao Miyazaki

While Hiroshige continues to be a source of inspiration for artists practicing today – among them, Julian Opie, Nigel Caple, and Noda Tetsuya to name just a few – his and Hokusai’s landscapes are cited as influential in shaping the evolution of the cinematic lensing seen in animation storyboards, including those of Hayao Miyazaki who famously noted his admiration of Edo-period artists for “seeing nature as alive and equal to us.”