Ando HiroshigeEssay Preview: Ando HiroshigeReport this essayAndo HiroshigeAndo Hiroshige was born under the name of Ando Tokutaro. He was born in Edo (now known as Tokyo) in 1797 as the son of a samurai and fireman. At the age of twelve, both his parents died in 1809. Two years later, in 1811, the young Hiroshige received a chance to join the famous Utagawa painting school. At that time, the ukiyo-e master Toyohiro Utagawa was the head of the studio. In 1812 he took his teachers name as a sign of graduation and began to sign his work as Utagawa Hiroshige. In the ukiyo-e literature he is usually referenced as Hiroshige Ando. The first work by Utagawa Hiroshige was a book illustration published in 1818, when he was 21 years old. Until 1830, Hiroshige created prints in the traditional style learned from his master Toyohiro Utagawa. His early commissions were book illustrations. Typical subjects out of that time are kabuki actors prints, beautiful women and a few warrior prints. Almost all of Hiroshiges mature work was the Japanese landscape, which he portrayed in a lyrical manner with an emphasis upon the misty atmosphere. No other Japanese artist has succeeded in expressing so well the feeling and appearance of Japan, nor has anyone portrayed it with more delicacy and poetry. Hiroshige depicted the landscapes, as well as the people traveling about the country or performing their daily tasks, with such care that they serve as a record of Japanese life of the mid-19th century. Whether he was portraying the ancient capital of Kyoto or the new capital of Edo, the beauty of Lake Biwa, or the Tokaido roads, the artist never tired of representing the varied aspects of his native land.
Of all the many sets of prints produced by Hiroshige, whose total output is estimated at more than 5,000, and the finest is the Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido Road, published in 1833 and reprinted numerous times ever since. This highway, which linked Edo with Kyoto, was the main road of Japan and was used by officials, businessmen, pilgrims, and sightseers who enjoyed its magnificent scenery, for it was flanked by mountains on the north and the sea on the south. Another set which is particularly fine is the Eight Views of Lake Biwa (1834), which gives expression to Hiroshiges sensitive feeling for the moods of nature during different seasons and under various atmospheric conditions. It is the kind of print which was so much admired
Tatsuya Murai’s beautiful series of pictures, as well as Tatsuya Murai’s paintings, have been widely reprinted in this volume.
A fascinating and very useful book on the artistic activities of Tokai. It presents the history of the Tokai, its many centuries, and its numerous and varied pictures at various times of the world. It also provides many insights into Tokai history including the earliest prints, the various pictures made by the various artists of the city, the fact that each and all of those prints are represented in different form and by different colors and scales.
This publication also has a large and extensive collection of photographs.
A very valuable and extremely helpful book, as well as, if you would like to view one of the numerous pictures in that book:
You can also read about Tatsuya Murai’s collection in this section: “Souvenirs of Tokai”.
The book, in which you can read about a different Tokai in every part of the world, in different colors, was first published in the 1890’s, as a pamphlet by the Tokai Museum and became a work of art in 1906. It was also a well known and widely circulated picture, from the works of Akira, the first Tokai painter who made his famous portrait of the river Honshu. This book contains more than 150 of photographs. Some of them have already been published (especially the 1883 edition), so you will find a variety of different editions, from different versions of each portrait. You can also read about some of Tatsuya Murai’s paintings:
A wonderful book. With lots of details in the text, it’s very interesting.
The following collection also gives some information about the Tokai itself, on the period of Tokai from about 1025 to 1900, for a number of years. Some of them in the first published editions (especially the 1884 and 1885 editions, for example);
This is the very best selection of Tatsuya Murai pictures which you can find. One of the main sources of information is in the following work by Tatsuya Murai (Mihime Musashi, 1864-1934): “Mijuku takkokou ni kai haikyu to kamishiru,” Yagami.
It contains many more Tatsuya Murai photographs of all kinds and shows the process at work.
An excellent historical and historical booklet as well as an interesting essay describing the cultural life of the Tokai. We can also see that by this time, in many of these pictures, an important part of the artistic experience had been introduced, and also the language was not in a state that it could convey it effectively (Tao Ikeda, Shokoro (Hiroshi), A Shiga; Tatsuya