Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road – a 'rapturous' exhibition
The British Museum showcases enchanting work by the prolific Japanese artist

This exhibition is something of a landmark, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. It is the first in this country in 25 years "to celebrate so extensively" the prolific Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797- 1858), a graphic genius whose work had a huge impact far beyond Japan. Born into "a low-ranking samurai family" in Edo (now Tokyo), Hiroshige became renowned for his "lyrical and atmospheric colour-woodblock prints".
Like other artists of the "floating world" (a pleasure-seeking urban lifestyle), he created pictures of bijin (beautiful women), actors and street scenes, before turning to landscape, a genre he helped invigorate: he made his name with a series depicting the Tokaido, the coastal highway between Edo and Kyoto. His prints were disseminated widely and eventually made their way to Europe. His "bold" artistic vision is "everywhere apparent" in this show, which presents almost 120 prints and paintings, "awash with enchanting images of Japan's awe-inspiring scenery".
Hiroshige "lived in turbulent times, just before Japan's opening up to the West", said Mark Hudson in The Independent. Yet there was also a boom in domestic tourism, and a demand for guide books and images recording pilgrimages or sight-seeing tours. He was a commercial artist; many of his pictures – "of crowds milling over bridges towards famous shrines" or "twirling their parasols" in celebrated beauty spots – are essentially tourist posters. This doesn't make them any less stunning, though. That he conjured such effects using woodblock, a notoriously difficult technique, makes them all the more remarkable. He "designed his images to maximise the limited possibilities of his medium", using "startling and essentially abstract" imagery to represent natural phenomena: "the trails of light-filled smoke drifting across dark mountains" in Karuizawa (1830s), for instance, "were created essentially by leaving the paper blank". Such works would have a major impact on European art.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Western artists took more than stylistic cues from Hiroshige, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. The impressionists, it's clear, borrowed a whole "philosophy" from him: that of celebrating "pleasure in the passing moment" and savouring "little freedoms". Hiroshige's pictures see people delighting in transient moments, from "a shower of rain or fresh crisp snow to a restaurant meal or trip to the theatre". One sees a group of people wrapped up warm to watch the spectacle of falling snow; another depicts a crowd enjoying an al fresco dinner on a dried-up riverbed, laughing and chattering away, and unwittingly anticipating Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. Such is European art's obvious debt to Hiroshige that a final section exploring his "global influence" feels rushed and incomplete. That aside, this is a "rapturous" exhibition packed with images that still feel "fresh" and timeless.
British Museum, London WC1. Until 7 September
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Russia slams Kyiv, hits government building
Speed Read This was Moscow's largest aerial assault since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
How should Keir Starmer right the Labour ship?
Today's Big Question Rightward shift on immigration and welfare not the answer to 'haemorrhaging of hope, trust and electoral support'
-
Rigatoni with 'no-vodka sauce' recipe
The Week Recommends Comfort food meets a clever alcohol-free twist on a classic
-
6 blooming homes for gardeners
Feature Featuring a greenhouse in Illinois and 13 raised garden beds in New Mexico
-
The Roses: Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch star in black comedy reboot
The Week Recommends 'Acidly enjoyable' remake of the 1980s classic features a warring couple and toxic love
-
Film reviews: The Roses, Splitsville, and Twinless
Feature A happy union devolves into domestic warfare, a couple's open marriage reaps chaos, and an unlikely friendship takes surprising turns
-
Music reviews: Laufey, Deftones, and Earl Sweatshirt
Feature "A Matter of Time," "Private Music," and "Live Laugh Love"
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogs
The Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
Millet: Life on the Land – an 'absorbing' exhibition
The Week Recommends Free exhibition at the National Gallery showcases the French artist's moving paintings of rural life
-
Thomasina Miers picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The food writer shares works by Arundhati Roy, Claire Keegan and Charles Dickens