HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)  , Japanese artist, was one of the principal members of that branch of the Ukiyo-ye or Popular School of Painting in Japan, a school which chiefly made colour-prints . His family name was Ando Tokitaro; that under which he is known having been, in accordance with Japanese practice, adopted by him in recognition of the fact that he was a pupil of Toyohiro . The earliest reference to him is in the account given by an inhabitant of the Lu-chu islands of a visit to Japan; where a sketch of a procession drawn with great skill by Hiroshige at the age of ten years only is mentioned as one of the remarkable sights seen . At the age of fifteen he applied unsuccessfully to be admitted to the studio of the elder Toyokuni; but was eventually received by Toyohiro . On the death of the latter in 1828, he began to practise on his own account, but finding small encouragement at Yedo (Tokyo) he removed to K1oto, where he published a set of landscapes . He soon returned to Yedo, where his work soon became popular, and was imitated by other artists . He died in that city on the 6th day of the 9th month of the year, Ansei 5th, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried at Asakusa . One of his pupils, Hironobu, received from him the name of Hiroshige II. and another, Ando Tokubei, that of Hiroshige III . All three were closely associated with the work signed with the name of the master . Hiroshige II. some time after the year 1863 fell into disgrace and was compelled to leave Yedo for Nagasaki, where he died; Hiroshige III. then called himself Hiroshige II . He died in 1896 . The earlier prints by these artists, whose work can hardly be separated, are of extraordinary merit .

They applied the

process of colour block printing to the purposes of depicting landscape, with a breadth, skill and suitability of convention that has been equalled only by Hokusai in Japan, and by no European . Most of their subjects were derived from the neighbourhood of Yedo, or were scenes on the old high road —the Tokaido—that ran from that city to Kioto . The two elder of the name were competent painters, and pictures and drawings by them are occasionally to be met with . See E . F . Strange, " Japanese Colour-prints " (Victoria and Albert Museum Handbook, 1904) . (E . F .