Utagawa Kunisada Hiroshige II (1826-1869) Japanese, Woodblock Print, "Water Lilies in Horikiri." 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Overall: 18 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. 

Sight: 13 x 9 1/4 in. 

#5039 #6j . 

Utagawa Kunisada Hiroshige II (1826-1869) was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e art. Born Suzuki Chinpei in 1826, it is said that he was born to a fireman, which likely first ingratiated him to his master Hiroshige, who grew up under the same circumstances. He became apprenticed to Hiroshige under the name Shigenobu at an unknown age, and his earliest known work is the illustrations for a book called Twenty-four Paragons of Japan and China from 1849. Hiroshige II produced a large number of commissioned works in the 1850s that he signed Ichiryūsai mon (“student of Ichiryūsai,” another art name of Hiroshige I), and sometimes simply Ichiryūsai. In 1858 he married Hiroshige I’s daughter Otatsu after the master died, taking on the name and becoming head of the school, while continuing to use the names Ichiryūsai and Ryūsai. In 1865 he moved from Edo to Yokohama after his marriage dissolved, and began using the name Kisai Risshō. In his remaining years he produced a number of collaborative print series, particularly with Kunisada, who had earlier worked with Hiroshige I. His final works were mainly decorations on items intended for export, such as tea chests, kites, and lanterns. In September 1869 he died at the age of 44. Hiroshige I took on very few students, a rarity for the Utagawa school, with Hiroshige II the most successful. His work so resembled that of his master in style, subject, and signature that scholars have often confused them, with special attention paid to discrepancies in the middle lines of the kanji to help tell them apart. The confusion was compounded because a pupil of the first Hiroshige, Shigemasa, later married his master’s daughter, also named Otatsu, and began using the name Hiroshige as well; this artist now is known as Hiroshige III.

Commensurate with age.