UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797 - 1858), THE COAST AT HOTA Japan, c. 1850s Woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Vertical Oban. Signed Hiroshige ga. Entitled Boshu, Hoda no Kaigan (The coast at Hota in Boshu), from the series Fuji sanjurokkei (36 Views of Mount Fuji). Framed, behind glass. SIZE of the sheet 22.2 x 33.6 cm, frame 34 x 46 cm Condition: Trimmed, colors faded, backed with Japan paper. Mounted at the upper margin to a passepartout. Comes with a wooden backplate showing an old Japanese label and behind glass in a used frame. Provenance: German private collection. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858) Utagawa Hiroshige (also referred to as Ando Hiroshige) is recognized as a master of the ukiyo-e woodblock printing tradition, having created 8,000 prints of everyday life and landscape in Edo-period Japan. Much of Hiroshige's work focuses on landscape. Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's popular Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige took a softer, less formal approach with his Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833-34), completed after traveling that coastal route linking Edo and Kyoto. Hiroshige's prolific output was somewhat due to his being paid very little per series. Still, this did not deter him, as he receded to Buddhist monkhood in 1856 to complete his brilliant and lasting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-58). He died in 1858, 10 years before Monet, Van Gogh, and a lot of Impressionist painters became eager collectors of Japanese art.