Artist · 172 prints
Utagawa Hiroshige Prints
About Utagawa Hiroshige
Utagawa Hiroshige was a Japanese printmaker, born Andō Tokutarō in Edo, today's Tokyo, in 1797. His father was a warden in the city's fire brigade, and the young Hiroshige took over the post as a boy. Around 1811 he entered the studio of the ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Toyohiro. Ukiyo-e, or pictures of the floating world, were popular woodblock prints of city life, actors and scenery. Hiroshige died in Edo on 12 October 1858, during a cholera epidemic.
Hiroshige made his name with landscapes. A journey along the great highway to Kyoto in 1832 led to The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833 to 1834), and late in life he made One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856 to 1858). His prints catch rain, snow, mist and moonlight, often with travellers and townspeople going about their day. He produced more than 5,000 designs. In Europe, Vincent van Gogh painted copies of two of them, including Plum Garden in Kameido, in 1887.
Utagawa Hiroshige prints: reproductions of the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints Utagawa Hiroshige designed between 1833 and 1858. The collection includes Tōkaidō 53 Stations: Kanagawa (1833), Snow at Yamanaka Village near Fujikawa (1855), 100 Views of Edo: Nihonbashi, Clearing after Snow (1856), Fudō Falls in Ōji (1857) and Peacock and Peonies.
This selection concentrates on Hiroshige's travel and city series: views from the Tōkaidō highway, the 1855 Famous Sights of the Fifty-three Stations, and many sheets from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, with bridges, shrines, shops and festivals. It also includes the Fifty-three Stations by Two Brushes set made with Utagawa Kunisada in 1854, views of Mount Fuji and a few bird-and-flower prints.
The soft blues, greens and snow scenes suit bedrooms, studies and hallways, and several prints from one series hang well as a grid. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
