Utagawa HIROSHIGE II (1826-1869)

HIROSHIGE II

Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826 – 1869) is the most well know and successful student of Utagawa Hiroshige and was his adopted son. His best-known series of landscape is Forty-Eight Famous Views of Edo and it is similar to his master’s works in style and technique. The name Hiroshige II was given to him after his master’s death in 1858.

In the 1860ies, when his marriage with Hiroshige’s daughter ended, Utagawa Hiroshige II moved from Edo to Yokohama. Since then he was also using the names Kisai Risshō (alternate pronunciation: Ryūshō) and Shigenobu. During this decade he produced several print series in cooperation with other ukiyo-e artists, for example with Utagawa Kunisada, who had previously worked with Hiroshige I.