Artist also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III

This print is a memorial portrait (shini-e) of Utagawa Hiroshige I (1797–1858), the master of lyrical landscape prints such as the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Following Hiroshige’s death in the ninth month of Ansei 5 (1858), his colleague and fellow Utagawa master, Kunisada (Toyokuni III), produced this formal portrait to honor his memory.

Hiroshige is depicted in seated, formal attire, with a poem and dedicatory text inscribed above. The rectangular memorial frame and subdued coloring are typical of the shini-e genre, designed both as tribute and remembrance. Red seals of the Utagawa school authenticate the work.