Utagawa (Andō) Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige was the poet among the woodblock masters: rain, snow, moonlight and travellers on the roads of Japan.

Life

Born in Edo in 1797, the son of a fire warden, he joined the workshop of Utagawa Toyohiro as a teenager. His breakthrough came with the series “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō” (1833–34), about the great road between Edo and Kyoto. He created thousands of prints, finally the “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”. He died in Edo in 1858, probably of cholera. Van Gogh later copied two of his prints in oil.

Style & technique

Hiroshige shows landscape as mood: a sudden shower, the hush of snow, mist over the river. He used colour gradations (bokashi) in sky and water, and bold foregrounds through which you look into the distance. His people are small, on the move and caught by the weather – you feel for them.

Look closely

  • The sky: gradations from dark blue to white or red at the horizon.
  • The weather: rain as fine lines, snow as areas of untouched white.
  • The foreground: branches, bridges or animals frame the view into the distance.

Timeline

  • 1797: Born in Edo.
  • c. 1811: Apprenticed to Utagawa Toyohiro.
  • 1833–1834: “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō”.
  • 1856–1858: “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo”.
  • 1858: Dies in Edo.

Works in the museum