Ukiyo-e.

Ukiyo-e was a popular form of printing in Japan’s Edo Period (1615-1818), using carved ,lout blocks of wood to create printing plates. The print process involved four people: the publisher, the artist, the carver and the printer. The first prints used black ink but later prints had layered, coloured inks and occasionally flecks of metal. The art was made accessible to the general public, since the woodblocks could be used over and over again to mass-produce the image – this also made book production much easier. Ukiyo-e, particularly the artists Hokusai and Hiroshige, eventually became a great influence on the beginning of art nouveau movement in Europe.

Ando Hiroshige is one of the most well-known ukiyo-e artists, along with his rival Katsushika Hokusai. Like Hokusai, some of his first works were of actors and humans. Hokusai was actually an influence on his work, as he soon drifted towards landscape prints, producing series such as One Hundred Views of Edo, among others. These made up most of his work. Hiroshige inspired European impressionists and art nouveau artists with his composition technique.

Title: Haneda Ferry and Benten Shrine, woodblock print

Artist: Ando Hiroshige/Utagawa Hiroshige

Year: c. 1857-1858

The scene is of a person riding a boat to Haneda village, but characteristic of Hiroshige’s compositions, he has set the viewpoint such that you see little more than the person’s legs, something completely different from typical ukiyo-e prints. In the background is a lighthouse, to alert the people on boats to land, and the Benten Shrine. The shrine is named after the Japanese goddess of water music and literature. The artist went by both Ando and Utagawa Hiroshige.

Although Hiroshige and Hokusai will always be known as rivals, Hiroshige’s legacy is remarkable considering he started printmaking at a later age than Hokusai, and had died earlier from a cholera epidemic.