Hiroshige was a wonderful Japanese artist and master that devoted his life to the creation of beautiful paintings, as well as teaching students the Ukiyo-e style.  Over the course of his career, Hiroshige produced many fascinating pieces.  His work was detailed, colorful, and refreshing.  In fact, while many Japanese artists were ranked among the best, Hiroshige’s work was indeed some of the most incredible of its time. 

One such creation of Hiroshige was called “69 Stations of Kisokaido”.  Hiroshige’s father was a firefighter who had the responsibility along with 32 other men to keep fire in the Edo Castle at bay.  Originally born as Ando Tokutaro in Edo, which is the current day’s Tokyo, Hiroshige lost both of his parents by the age of 12.  However, having shown serious talent in painting at a very young age, he was accepted into the famous Utagawa School in 1811 at the age of 14. 

Studying under the master Toyohiro Utagawa, he soon was allowed to change his name to Utagawa, which became his name – Utagawa Hiroshige.  However, if you were to conduct research on this Japanese artist or try to find prints of his work, you would likely need to look under the name of Hiroshige Ando as well.  Keep in mind that his early work consisted primarily of illustrated books, his first book being published in 1818.  Hiroshige used traditional style of painting, consisting of kabuki actors, warriors, and of course, beautiful women.  However, by 1830, Hiroshige began to expand his style interest. 

As his skill continued to develop and with a keen eye for detail, Hiroshige began to expand his work to landscape scenes.  While he had incredible success with this genre, one of his greatest masterpieces was called “Tokaido Gojusan-Tsungi No Uchi”, which took him a year to complete.  Other Americanized names for this particular piece include “From the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido” and “Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido”.  No matter what it was called, the painting of this coastal highway linking Kyoto and Edo was nothing less than spectacular. 

Another of his paintings known as “Sixty-Nine Stations of Kisokaido” captured the turnpike like stations where people were required to pay a toll.  Each station was designed with a lodge for travelers and a restaurant where simple meals could be enjoyed.  His work on the Tokaido stations was so spectacular that even with his great success in other artistic genres, these were what brought him great fame and fortune.  Realizing the security and joy this type of work brought him, Hiroshige focused his attention in this area of landscape for the next 20 years. 

Some of the other beautiful pieces created by Hiroshige included “Tokaido Gojusan-Tsugi”, which was comprised of 56 prints in chuban size, Tokaido, 55 prints in oban size, Gojusan-Tsugi Meisho-Zue, also 55 prints in oban size, and So-Hitsu Gojusan-Tsugi, consisting of 55 vertical prints in oban size.