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  • Utagawa Hiroshige I
  • Utagawa Hiroshige I

Utagawa Hiroshige I 広重 (Japanese, 1797–1858), also referred to as Hiroshige, was born as Andō Tokutarō in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1797. At around the age of 14, Hiroshige studied painting under Toyohiro of the Utagawa school while working as an apprentice, making book illustrations and ukiyo-e prints of female beauties and kabuki actors. In the early 1830s, Hiroshige began traveling and creating his now iconic landscape series. In his lifetime, he produced over 8,000 works and trained two students who were later called Hiroshige II and III and produced works in a similar style. Never achieving any significant wealth, Hiroshige’s prolific output is often tied to both high demand and his need to earn a living. While his early works followed the tradition of printmaking of the time, he became famous for his landscape and travel prints with unique vantage points and beautiful colors. Especially labor-intensive, Hiroshige was known for printing multiple layers in each impression and creating subtle color gradations. His works are held in the collections of many major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum, and the Museum of Art in Shizuoka.


11 works

11 works