Erik's Graphic Art History: Hiroshige and Hokusai

In 1853, American Matthew C. Perry led a naval fleet into Tokyo Bay and forced Japan to ally itself with the American Army. It was the last decades up until this day that marked the last years of non-international Japanese History, a time in which Japanese art and lifestyles were completely different. Ukiyo-e was a nationally widespread popular genre from the 17^th to the 19^th centuries, it was a genre that produced many great artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige. These artists were extremely successful painters and printmakers from the school of printmaking. Ukiyo-e was an art style popular during the great Edo period and as such was marketed towards the wealthy people of Edo during the time.

Hokusai and Hiroshige were very similar in their lifestyles; both had periods of their lives where their artwork was made up primarily of landscape artwork not prominent in the Ukiyo-e style, and both painted the Kabuki dancers and young women that did make up the Ukiyo-e. Many people assume that Hokusai was Hiroshige’s mentor and teacher however this is exactly true, in fact I would classify them more as rivals. Although Hokusai produced much more artwork then Hiroshige it is thought the Hiroshige to be the more successful artist of the two. I saw they are rivals because rising artists in the beginning of the 19^th century were improving upon the old masters of the art style like Hokusai.

Many great series of art came from these two artists such as Hokusai’s most popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, and Hiroshige’s Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Hokusai was known by many names during his time, however he is most famously known by Katsushika Hokusai by which name he produced most of his best and most famous works at the age of 60. This contrasts Hiroshige who only took the name of his master Utagawa and reached the peek of his success in 1833 at the age of 36.