200 years ago, a young Japanese man destined to become a Samurai put down the sword and picked up a paint brush, and in doing so was to become the last master of the great Ukiyo-e tradition of woodblock prints.
Now, an exhibition of those images has opened at the British Museum.
Utagawa Hiroshige was born in 1797 and, at about 14, chose to become an artist. Although like others, he focused on traditional images of female beauties, sumo wrestlers, and simple landscapes, Hiroshige’s work is notable for the air of gentle grace and decorum in his observations.
The westernisation of the country following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 saw his style of artwork fall out of favour in Japan, but in turn, his work was picked up by western artists and has often been cited as an inspiration for many 19th-century Europeans.
The British Museum owns 35 of his prints and has brought together another 82 to showcase Hiroshige’s range, from broad landscapes to close-ups of society at work and play.
It opens though with a print that Hiroshige didn’t make – it’s of the artist made after his sudden death in 1858, and is one of the few known portraits of him known to survive.
Survival is a key phrase, as while you’re in a room of his artwork, very few of the originals he made survive, as many would have been destroyed as part of the block print process itself. So, while large quantities of prints were made, the original itself was often lost.
The room is filled with his prints, from bird-and-flower prints that reveal his poetic feeling for nature, while his landscapes reflected the growing interest in travel across Japan. Hiroshige portrayed his world sometimes as it was, but often the way he imagined it could be.
One of the most prolific areas of work that Hiroshige produced was designs designed to be thrown away — as they were used on bamboo hand fans. As disposable objects, very few survived, and the exhibition has one rare item on display.
It’s as if a leading artist of today were being employed to design chocolate bar packaging.
The heart of the exhibition is very much both familiar, in the traditional style of Japanese prints, but also a bit of an eye opener at times, especially if you read the descriptions of some of the female subjects he drew.
There’s also a large focus on his travel prints, which were somewhat idealised visions of the places he visited. Despite that, his landscapes became highly collectable, and the exhibition has brought together some of the finest surviving examples of major designs from the One Hundred Views, along with pristine examples of less-familiar designs from this series.
The exhibition ends not 200 years ago, but in modern times, looking at how he still influences artists today.
As a collection, it’s rare to see the work of the last masters of this genre of art, as it’s been over 25 years since the last such exhibition was shown in London.
The exhibition, Hiroshige: artist of the open road is at the British Museum until September 2025.
- Standard Ticket: £18
- Children (with an adult): Free
- Concessions: £16
- National Art Pass: £9
Tickets can be bought on the day or in advance from here.
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