Utagawa Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige

Ando Tetsuzo

歌川広重

Andô Tetsuzô

安藤鉄蔵

Tokyo 1797

print designer

Born in Edo to a low-ranking samurai household, Hiroshige entered the studio of Utagawa Toyohiro in his early teens. His early work focused on bijin ga and actor prints, the bread-and-butter subjects of the Utagawa school, but figure drawing was never his forte. Within a year of Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige turned to landscapes. His Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô, published by Hôeidô in 1833-1834, was an overnight success; it outstripped sales for Hokusai's series and would go on to become the most popular print series in Japanese history, continually reprinted to the present day.

Encouraged by such ravenous demand, Hiroshige created many more landscape series, often with the theme of views from one of the great highways.

Male

Associate of: Utagawa Kunisada (Japanese, 1786–1864)

Student of: Utagawa Toyokuni (Japanese, 1769–1825)