Utagawa or Ando Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige was a Japanese artist who worked as a painter, draughtsman, and engraver, primarily known for his ukiyo-e prints. Expanding upon the beautiful images of artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, the artist influenced art history with his detailed depictions of landscapes, precise use of the line, and mesmerizing colorwork. The artist was considered the last great master of ukiyo-e. Between 1818 and 1858, Hiroshige created more than 5400 engravings. Hiroshige's influence on western art can be felt in the works of Modern artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, an influence which came to be known as Japonism.

Early Life

Hiroshige was born in 1797 in Edo, present-day Tokyo. He was named Andō Tokutarō. The only document that confirms this date is a posthumous portrait made by fellow artist Utagawa Kunisada, in which he wrote that Hiroshige died at 62 years old.

His great-grandfather was a samurai who held a respectable position of power under the Tsugaru clan. His father, Andō Genuemon, was a fire warden and was directly employed by the Shogun. There are testimonies that the young Hiroshige was fond of sketching, and his first contact with art was through another fire warden who gave him painting classes. This artist was named Okajima Rinsai and was from the Kano School.

By twelve years old, he'd already lost a sister, his mother, and his father, who passed him his fire warden duties. He was in charge of the fire prevention administration at the Edo Castle, a job that left him much spare time and gave him enough economic stability. It wasn't unusual that fire wardens pursued other occupations outside their job, as they had rather relaxed schedules - Art was one of them.

The Utagawa School

Hiroshige began to have formal art education in his early teens. He first applied to the artist Tokoyuni, quite famous at the time, but was rejected. Some scholars interpret this as a happy incident, predicting that the younger artist wouldn't achieve such a synthesis of simplicity and detailed work if he studied under Tokoyuni, which would lead him to become an imitator instead of coming into his style.

He then sought tutelage under Utagawa Toyohiro at the Utagawa school, which was the most powerful school of the 19th century for teaching woodblock print. The young artist was later considered Utagawa's greatest disciple. The Utagawa School was famous, as they worked with perspective techniques and already incorporated European influence.

Other than Hokusai, it was rare for an artist to work with perspective. They amounted to 145 students, and the apprentices that excelled were allowed to adopt the Utagawa surname. More than half of the remaining ukiyo-e prints were produced by members of the school. Other famous members of the Utagawa School were Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Artistic Education

By 15 years old, the Japanese artist was already permitted to sign his artworks, which he finally did under the name Hiroshige, after many changes. He also studied in many schools of traditional Japanese painting, such as Kano and Shijo. In his studies, Hiroshige also learned Western perspective techniques and the art of ukiyo-e. In 1818, Hiroshige made his first publication.

The artist married his first wife in 1821, and they had a son the same year. She was named Okabe Yuaemon and was the daughter of a fire warden. In 1828, Toyohiro died, and his pupil occupied his job, which made the artist use the pseudonym Toyohiro II for a short time. This was possibly one of the motifs that made Hiroshige leave his post working for the Shogun.

It was only around 1830 that he started to execute the landscapes he came to be known for, such as the series Eight Views of Omi. He also produced several numbers of flower and bird prints around this time. His change of subject was gradual since he worked primarily with yakusha-e, prints of Kabuki actors, and bijinga, prints depicting beautiful women. In addition to his striking landscapes, the artist also created beautiful marine scenes, such as Sailing Boats at Arai from the series 53 Stations of Tokaido.

It was due to significant influence from Katsushika Hokusai, who recently published his famous Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, that Hiroshige started to work with landscapes and themes sprung from nature. Hokusai was a trailblazer and worked with all kinds of genres and subjects, but it was his ukiyo-e work depicting nature that got him famous, provoking a lasting influence on all Japanese artists.

Maturity

In 1832 the artist left his occupation as a fire warden, which he passed to his son, Nakajirō. There is debate over his motivations in doing so, some speculating over the adoption of his father into their family and his position being put in doubt. Whatever the reason may be, this made a clear impact on the artist's career. He was then fully dedicated to his craft.

Hiroshige joined an official procession to Kyoto, an opportunity to travel and see the Tokaido route that linked both capitals. The Tokaido was a known route, not only for commercial reasons but also for touristic ones, where travelers indulged in the sights and the food of the region. He sketched the landscapes along the way, and several of them became part of the series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, containing some of his best-known artworks. This series was an instant success and made Hiroshige a publicly known figure in Japan.

Hiroshige, building on his recent success, subsequently published other sets of prints such as Famous Places of Kyoto, Places of Naniwa, and Eight Views of Omi. Since the artist never went to Naniwa and the Omi Province, Hiroshige often used paintings and books as references. From 1834 to 1839, he enjoyed commercial success and was acknowledged as a great artist.

Famine and Crisis

Even though the artist was prospering commercially, this was the decade of the Great Tenpō Famine, which began in 1833 and lasted around 1837. This became a reason for political turmoil since the upper classes of Japan were capable of passing this period without any hardships, while many people were starving to death.

A rebellion happened in Osaka in 1837 against corrupt officials. Hokusai, who was among the most famous artists in the country, faced economic difficulty during this period and had to sell official drawings at meager prices. There is documentation that the crisis took its toll on the Hiroshige family, with his wife working as clothes and accessory seller so they could make more money.

Okabe Yuaemon died in 1839, and the artist stopped working for a brief time. Hiroshige was, in other aspects, lucky compared to certain artists. There was constant censorship on artworks since the beginning of the 19th century. Artists of Kitagawa Utamaro's scope were fined and imprisoned for depicting courtesans, samurais, and other political figures.

In 1842, another law regarding censorship was issued, which caused financial trouble for artists that dealt with this subject. Since the engraver was working mainly with landscapes and city scenes since the 1830s, Hiroshige was capable of circumventing this issue.

The appeal of his work can be understood as the recreation of the experience of traveling. Hiroshige's art portrays the intimate and indescribable experience of meeting nature, a sincere simplicity upon it, capable of not only reaching the shogunate but the citizens of the lower class as well. In times of political unrest and natural catastrophe, the artist brought a sense of contemplation to the Japanese people.

Later Life and Death

In 1847, the artist married his second wife, Oyasu. Her father was a farmer, and the newlywed couple moved in together the next year. Hiroshige and Oyasu then adopted a daughter. She was named Tatsu and married Hiroshige II, after divorcing him and then marrying Hiroshige III. They were pupils of her father. As it was the tradition in Japan, they used their master's name to sign their productions.

Beginning in 1848, Hiroshige began producing his highly celebrated series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, working on them until the last decade of his life. In this series, the artist created several masterpieces, which had a monumental influence on Western painting. The use of color, the depiction of rural landscapes, and a search for an immediate connection with nature are aspects of this series that all resemble what Paul Gauguin pursued in his paintings.

As Japanese printmaking popularized in the West, several artists began to draw influence from these delicate and impactful artworks. Probably the most iconic example of this influence was Vincent van Gogh's Flowering Plum Tree, a direct reference to Hiroshige's Plum Garden in Kameido.

During the 1850s, there was a shift in Hiroshige's work. His compositions became more abrupt, the color contrast is more substantial, with color gradation as a visual tool in his images. This bold use of color, the unusual compositions that seemed to promote both the use of perspective and, at the same time, the flatness of Japanese art, the simplification of the human figure while being incredibly detailed in the depiction of nature were all aspects that attracted early Modernists. His impact would be felt even more outside Japan, in the circle of the Impressionists.

The artist continued to produce prints until the end of his life. Hiroshige had a fair number of apprentices, but none became artists with an outstanding production like his. Utagawa Hiroshige died on October 12, 1858, because of cholera. The disease was spreading across the country and took many lives with it. Two years before, he decided to become a monk, shaving his head. He was then buried in a Zen Temple in Asakusa.

Cultural Context and legacy

Hiroshige lived under the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Because of Japan's internal conflicts in the prior centuries, the country closed itself to foreign countries. Christians were then persecuted. The feudal organization of Japan was transitioning into a centralized state, with Edo being the most populous city in the world in 1727. Edo then became a commercial and cultural center, and the middle class was eager to buy art.

It is in this situation that ukiyo-e was highly consumed. The engraving process involved many functions: the artist that made the original drawing, the engraver, the people that printed it, and then publishers, which would organize and market the series and artists. It became a lucrative endeavor. Since the country was living in a time of peace, art isn't restricted anymore for religious or governmental projects, and it became aimed at the rising bourgeois.

The environments depicted in the ukiyo-e are, then, those of the middle class: touristic routes, as it was the case of The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido; urban environments, landscapes that also contain the human figure, working or traveling, kabuki actors, geishas, and then the censored subject: samurais and political figures. In all of these cases, they serve as a historical document of Japan's shift, even though closed to foreign exchange, becoming more centralized and urban.

Hiroshige was one of the last widely known artists of ukiyo-e. He started as it was usual for many artists of his time: depicting actors and courtesans. In some years, his interest shifted to landscapes and themes that dealt with nature. In this subject, the artist found his strength and vocation. Hiroshige was capable of embodying both simplicity and detail in his work, and it is considered extremely realistic during his period. Still, it becomes clear in the colored artworks that he worked with poetic freedom by using unnatural color to convey a certain mood and atmosphere.

The artist's oeuvre reflects a harmonic relationship with nature. Rivers, grass, trees, animals, and the human figure all seem to work towards unity, to a certain romantic and idyllic sensation. This aesthetic attitude, in which nature becomes the central theme to explore a highly formal and subjective approach, greatly influenced European art at the turn of the 19th century.

The European attraction to Japan's artworks became called Japonism. Hokusai and Hiroshige are two of the biggest names of the phenomenon. Vincent van Gogh is the artist with the most known associations with Japanese production, as he created works inspired directly by Hiroshige prints. Basically, every major Modernist of the XIX century took some influence from Japanese art, especially regarding the color and the different use of perspective.

Quotes

"I leave my brush at Azuma,
I go to the Land of the West on a journey
To view the famous sights there".
- Utagawa Hiroshige