Hiroshige, Ando

1797 – He was Utagawa Hiroshige born this year in the east of Edo Castle in the Yaesu area of Edo which is presently known as Tokyo.

1806 - His natural inclination toward drawing marked him for an artistic life: As a child, he had played with miniature landscapes, and he was already moderately well-known for a remarkably accomplished (for his age) painting in this year, of a procession of delegates to the Shogun from the Ryukyu Islands.

1811 - He eventually embarked (he was rejected again on his first attempt to enter Toyohiro's studio on an apprenticeship at the age of 14 in this year, with the noted Utagawa Toyohiro instead of with Toyokuni; Toyohiro bestowed upon him the name "Utagawa" after only a year (instead of the normal two or three years).

1818 - Hiroshige's first genuinely original publications came only in this year; this was also the year he was commended for his heroism in fighting a fire at Ogawa-nichi) with his Eight Views of Lake Biwa and Ten Famous Places in the Eastern Capital.

1832 - Hiroshige was invited to join an embassy of Shogun officials to the Imperial court.

1839 - Hiroshige's first wife, a woman from the Okabe family, died. Hiroshige re-married O-yasu, daughter of a farmer named Kaemon.

1840 - Hiroshige lived in the barracks until he turned 43 this year.

1856 - He dominated landscape printmaking with his unique brand of intimate, almost small-scale works. In this year, working with the publisher Uoya Eikichi, he created a series of high quality prints, made with the finest printing techniques including true gradation of color, the addition of mica, embossing, fabric printing, blind printing, and the use of glue printing.

1858 – He died on the 12th day of October of this year.