Hiroshige

By Sandra Forty

Ando Hiroshige is considered by many as the last of the great creative masters of the traditional Japanese woodblock print. His skill has won him worldwide fame and artistic influence, along with his contemporary, Katsushika Hokusai. Both artists widened the range of subjects they covered to encompass every aspect of life in Japan’s Edo period. Although famous primarily for his landscapes and the studies of his home city of Edo, Hiroshige produced many others kinds of ukiyo-e , or everyday images of Japan. He was a mood and nature painter, who loved to portray and capture the changing seasons and weather. A poet of snow, rain, and wind, and a great lover of moonlight, dawn, and dusk, Hiroshige dominated landscape printmaking with his unique and intimate small-scale prints as opposed to the older traditions of landscape painting. This book is a selected collection of Hiroshige’s paintings in the series 100 Famous Views of Edo. He completed all but a handful of the scenes before his death. His son finished the series. The series is divided into the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TAJ Books International
• Release date: Jan 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781844062980

Sandra Forty

Sandra Forty is a graduate of London University where she studied medieval and early modern history, including a spell at the Courtauld Institute learning about Renaissance art from Professor Gombrich. Since then she has worked as a journalist in London, then as a book editor and writer. She is the author of a number of books, most on art and architecture. Sandra lives in south Devon with her husband, children and many cats.

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ISBN 978-1-84406-298-0

Printed in China

1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13

1797-1858

Ando Hiroshige is considered by many as the last of the great creative masters of the traditional Japanese woodblock print. His skill has won him worldwide fame and artistic influence, along with his contemporary, Katsushika Hokusai. Both of them widened the range of subjects they covered to encompass every aspect of life in Japan’s Edo period.

Although famous primarily for his landscapes and the studies of his home city Edo, Hiroshige produced many others kinds of ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world), everyday images of Japan. He was a mood and nature painter, who loved to portray and capture the changing seasons and weather. A poet of snow, rain, and wind, and a great lover of moonlight, dawn, and dusk, Hiroshige dominated landscape printmaking with his unique and intimate small-scale prints as opposed to the older traditions of landscape painting.

Although he knew that he wanted to be an artist at an early age, Hiroshige went through the necessary lengthy period of development before he emerged as a master—it was over 20 years after he began working that his reputation became established. As with other Japanese ukiyo-e artists he changed his name several times, using "Ando