Utagawa Hiroshige II (Rissho)

1829-1869

One Hundred Views of Famous Places in the Provinces: Iwakuni Kintai Bridge
(Shokoku meisho hyakkei: Iwakuni Kintai Bashi)

signed Hiroshige ga with publisher's seal Shitaya, Uoei han (Sakanaya Eikichi) and censor's date seal Aratame Hitsuji-juichi (examined, year of the goat [1859], 11th month), 1859

oban tate-e 14 1/8 by 9 5/8 in., 35.8 by 24.6 cm

Born Suzuki Chinpei in 1826, the artist known as Hiroshige II was the son of a fireman, as was his teacher, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), to whom he was apprenticed at a young age. Intitally working under the go (art name) Shigenobu, he was married to his master's daughter Otatsu, and inherited the Hiroshige name at the passing of his father-in-law in 1858. In addition to producing landscapes in the Hiroshige style, he frequently collaborated with other artists, especially with Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Following a divorce from Otatsu (and around the same time as the passing of Kunisada) he took the name Kisai Rissho and moved to Yokohama in 1865 where produced works illustrating the booming port city inhabited by foreigners. Although his prints were included in the international exposition in Paris in 1867, he had little success at home and eventually was painting export tea chests, kites and lanterns to earn a living. He died at the young age of 44 in September 1869. Another student of Hiroshige I, Shigemasa (Toto Torakichi, 1842/43-1894), later married Otatsu and began using the Hiroshige name, his work is now identified as that of Hiroshige III.

Although the title indicates the publisher intended to produce 100 meisho-e (pictures of famous views) in this series, only 85 were completed between 1859 and 1861- a dynamic time in Japan just before the Meiji period (1868-1912) when the entire ukiyo-e industry was just beginning to come to grips with the rapidly changing tastes of a society suddenly open to the West.

The Kintai-bashi (Bridge of the Brocade Sash) crosses the Nishikawa (Brocade River) in Iwakuni. It was builit in 1673 with five arches supported by wood pilings under the arches near the shore and four massive stone pilings engineered to withstand annual flooding that had destroyed earlier bridges with wood pilings. The original survived until 1950 when it was destroyed by a typhoon but was reconstructed in 1953 by Iwakuni city.

Exhibited:
Near and Far: Landscapes by Japanese Artists, The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, California, January 6 - April 20, 2013

References:
Howard Link, Hiroshige: The James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1991, p. 143, no. VIII-2-8 (deluxe impression); museum no. L 23,868
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, no. 1994.39
Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 1990.607.68
The British Museum, accession no. 1915,0823,0.329.9
The Clark Museum, object no. 2014.16.17
Edo-Tokyo Museum (deluxe impression)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Legion of Honor, accession no. 1983.1.148
Harvard Art Museums, object no. 1933.4.250
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, accession no. 11.16909

(inv. no. C-4021)

price: $7,800