character/[id]

Born in Yaesu-kawagishi, Edo (present-day Chuo Ward, Tokyo), the eldest son of Ando Juemon, a firefighting official in the shogunate's fixed fire-brigade. His real name was Ando Juemon (later Tokutar). Losing both parents in early childhood, he inherited the household post at age 13 and pursued his ambition to become an artist while serving as a fire-brigade official. Around 1811 he entered the studio of Utagawa Toyohiro, acquired the ukiyo-e techniques, and received the artist name Hiroshige. In the early 1830s his participation in an official journey to Kyoto accompanying the shogunate directly inspired the creation of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Beginning publication in 1833, the series of 55 prints (including title and epilogue sheets) became a major hit for its lyrical depictions of landscapes along Japan's highways. He went on to create many celebrated series including the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. In his later years he transferred the fire-brigade post to his nephew and devoted himself entirely to painting. He died suddenly of cholera in 1858 at age 61, and his funeral was held at Togakuji temple in Asakusa.

He distilled into his paintings a deep attachment to travel and a delicate sensitivity to the transience of nature. He was peerless in his era in depicting atmospheric effects — rain, snow, mist, and twilight — earning the saying "Hiroshige's rain gets you wet." Whereas Hokusai was known for the dynamism of figures and movement, Hiroshige stood as a contrasting presence, the poet of seasons and sentiment.

His ukiyo-e prints, headed by the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, reached Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth century and, as a figurehead of Japonisme, profoundly influenced Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters including Monet, Van Gogh, and Whistler. Van Gogh made oil copies of Hiroshige's "Plum Park in Kameido" and "Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge." Today his works are held in museum collections worldwide, forming the foundation of the international prestige of Japanese art.