San Diego Museum of Art

Utagawa Hiroshige

Japanese · 1797–1858

Japanese ukiyo-e master whose woodblock prints of the Tōkaidō road, rain, snow, and waterways combined lyrical observation with bold graphic design. The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo shaped the Western reception of Japanese art and directly influenced Van Gogh, Monet, and Post-Impressionism.

On now and coming soon exhibitions

Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige

Until Nov 15

Unmissable ukiyo-e prints including The Great Wave, still radically modern after 200 years

"There is not enough space (in this article, on the internet) to adequately describe the bands of colour that Hokusai gives to the skies through pine trees and plum gardens (one literal translation of mono no aware is “the ah!-ness of things”, which is perhaps as close as we can get)."

— The Guardian