was a designer of ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 Japanese woodblock prints

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

 who was born as . He became a student and the adopted son of Hiroshige

Hiroshige

was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....

, then being given the artistic identity of, “Shigenobu”. When the senior Hiroshige died in 1858, Shigenobu married his master’s daughter, Otatsu. At that time he adopted the art-name

Art-name

An art-name is a pseudonym, or penname, used by an East Asian artist, which they sometimes change. The word and the idea to use a pseudonym originated from China, then became popular in other East Asian countries ....

 "Hiroshige". About 1865, the marriage was dissolved. Hiroshige II then moved to Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 and resumed using the name Shigenobu. He also signed some of his work as Ryūshō.

Another pupil of the first Hiroshige, Shigemasa, then married the master's daughter, Otatsu, and also began using the name Hiroshige; this artist now is known as Hiroshige III

Hiroshige III

was a Japanese woodblock artist who was a student of Utagawa Hiroshige. He was also referred to as .Born , he was given the artistic name Shigemasa...

.

External links

• Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of Utagawa Hiroshige II
  • Complete Works